A Learning Experience
by Kahuna Burger
Summary: Sokka sees an unexpected side of Zuko - his heroic side. As he learns more about the prince, his feelings change from hate to respect to friendship and beyond. First season Zukka, starts around Bato of The Water Tribe and rapidly diverges.
1. Things getting worse

**Standard disclaimers apply. Will eventually include some darker theme (including torture and child abuse) and some happy themes of male/male love.**

Sokka considered himself somewhat of an expert on Things Getting Worse. A quarter hour or so ago, when the three of them had been settling into their camp in the fading light of a setting sun and Katara was cooking, things were going really well, which meant that when Katara dropped the soup pot sending half their current provisions splashing into the dirt, Things were Getting Worse. And when she revealed the cause of the wasted soup to be having heard the sound of a child screaming for help, Things looked to Get even Worse than that.

Ten minutes ago, when Sokka and Katara caught up to Aang at what appeared to be a vine strewn hillside with some picturesque remains of an ancient park beside it, Things hadn't quite Gotten Worse, but they had gotten a bit confusing, as there was no sign of a child. But then Aang said he could hear the crying as well and took a deep breath to give one of his crazy airbending strength blows at the hill, revealing a place where the flowering vines pressed inward instead of scattering around. A hidden cave, then. Things probably Getting Worse, this pointed to a possible kidnapping not just a lost kid. But they plunged ahead, moving into what turned out to be a tunnel choked with more vines, these damper and unflowered, which seemed to cling to their legs as they pushed in. Sokka kept his machete out with a torch in the other hand while Katara held her water flask like a weapon and Aang listened carefully for any more sounds of the child.

Five minutes ago, when the clinging of the wet vines became less "seeming" and more "watch out, the plants are trying to capture us!" it was definite that Things were Getting Worse at a rapid pace. The vines didn't mind getting wet or frozen, and there was only so much good that blowing on them could do, plus Aang had begun to act somewhat lethargic and less upset than the situation really warranted. So Sokka had a brief shining moment of being the most effective one, cutting swathes with his machete and trying to move the other two back to the mouth of the cave. But Katara stopped and argued about whether they should leave without finding the child, and Aang seemed to want to sit a moment and relax, which in short order brought them to the present time, with Sokka's machete arm hopelessly entangled by vines and all of them being pulled slowly but steadily deeper. Things, without a doubt, had Gotten a lot Worse.

"Help!"

"Aang, this is a really serious situation here, you need to do something about this!"

"Um, yeah, serious... I kinda see what you're saying, but I'm not... you know, really... I dunno, maybe the plants are friendly..."

The airbender's eyes were looking distinctly glazed, and Sokka was distinctly scared. He had found Aang's lapses into what he called the Avatar State frightening, but it was very powerful, and might be the only option to get them out of this. But it seemed that Aang had to be feeling some strong negative emotion to get there, and whatever was happening had him too calm to Glow It Up right now.

"Seriously, anyone, help!"

"Katara, who's going to hear you?" Sokka wasn't sure whether to point out that anyone who did hear her was likely to just end up stuck with them. If the Avatar, a water bender and a brave warrior such as himself were outmatched, a random passerby wasn't likely to do them much good.

"I don't know, but no one will hear if we don't yell, now will they? HELP!"

As Sokka tried once more to gain enough freedom of moment to bring his machete to bear on the vines pulling them deeper into the tunnel, he was surprised to hear a shout from the direction of the cave mouth.

"Chang! Is that you?"

Awkward. "No, but help anyway? Please?" Sokka was wondering who Chang was and how many people were going to end up stuck here when a burst of flame cleared the vines between them and the unknown voice.

The water tribesman had just enough time to wonder if he would rather be saved by a firebender or stay captured by vines for a while longer when the firebender leapt over the smoldering plant remains holding one flaming hand up like a torch, and he definitively made up his mind. The very pale firebender. With his head mostly shaved except a tall topknot. And a burn scar covering one eye. Did the spirits really hate Sokka this much?

"Oh, hi Zuko... that's a nice vest. Sokka says this is serious, do you think you can help?" Well, at least Aang's pleasant confusion had the side effect of completely flummoxing the Fire Nation prince. And true, Zuko was wearing some sort of sleeveless red top and black pants instead of his usual armor, but Sokka wasn't sure that fashion compliments were really the way to go in this situation.

"What are you... augh, nevermind!" the prince spat out after an array of expressions had finished warring for primacy on his face, with irritation as the clear winner. "Look, have you seen a little boy in this cave? Five years old, fire nation clothing?"

"What, did you get tired of harassing a twelve year old and now you're attacking someone you can handle?"

Sokka appreciated his sister's talent with an insult, but figured this would be even less helpful at getting out of here than the fashion talk. "Katara, don't piss off the firebender while we're incased in flammable objects! No, we haven't seen anyone, but we were looking for a kid Katara and Aang thought they heard screaming and crying. Why don't you let us out and we'll help you find him?" Yeah right. Zuko's target was helpless and both of the Avatar's protectors were in no better state, things weren't going to get any better for the prince than this. The warrior waited in dread for Aang to be knocked out and carried off before his eyes.

"I don't have time for this." Zuko stared at the young airbender for a moment with a look that could only be called hungry, then shared the fire he was still holding between both hands, stretching it out into two long whips of flame that he swung towards them.

As Katara shrieked in fear and Aang murmured "pretty..." Sokka just struggled to keep his eyes open, not wanting to hide from his death like a coward. But the lashes landed neatly to the sides of each vine snared form and Zuko let them dissipate to reach forward and and yank the younger two loose from their damaged bonds while the water tribesman managed to break himself free. Then the prince just silently pushed past them, letting loose a burst of fire that cleared the tunnel ahead of him before moving forward with another call for the unknown boy.

"We have to get out of here!"

Sokka growled slightly. "Yeah I remember saying that a few minutes ago, before we got trapped... Look, take Aang out, get him some fresh air, maybe that'll help. I'm gonna keep trying to find the kid."

"But... Zuko is here!"

"That's why Aang shouldn't be. But... It looks like Zuko is here to find that same kid, maybe? So it should be safe for me as long as he's distracted by that." Sokka didn't give his sister a chance to object, and wasn't sure he could explain himself why he wanted to continue a rescue mission he had been dragged into to begin with, just turned Katara towards the cave mouth, shoved Aang into her and then ran down the tunnel after the fire prince.

When he caught up, slicing a singed vine that had grabbed onto the older boy's arm, he got exactly the look of surprised suspicion he had been expecting. "What are you still doing here?"

"You know, saving people, being heroic and stuff? What are you doing here in the first place?"

The annoyed look made Sokka glad that the prince apparently had better things to set on fire right now as another smooth blast of flame cleared more room ahead of them. "I'm looking for a little lost boy, who apparently has been captured by a plant monster. And being bothered by a Water Tribe idiot."

"Hey, I'm not bothering, I'm helping!" The very-much-not-an-idiot-thank-you-kindly enforced this with a couple of helpful machete chops. "And I mean, why are you here looking for a lost kid?"

"Because the local guard are moronic colonial slugs, and his mother is sitting on my ship crying into my uncle's shoulder..."

Sokka recalled now that the town being a Fire Nation colony had quashed plans to resupply there. No wonder Zuko had specified Chang's clothing that way. "Oh, what so you know the kid?"

"No, why would I know a random colonial brat?" After sparing a brief glance to take in the continued confused look, he elaborated as he blasted more fire. "His mother came to ask for help because she knew the guard wouldn't send anyone soon enough, and my ship flies the royal family's standard."

"Oh... right, cause if they're Fire Nation themselves, you being a prince from there would be a good thing... I guess? So wait, do you do this sort of thing a lot?"

"Not plant monsters, no." Sokka choked for a moment as he tried to figure out if the dry humor had been intentional and then dismissed the idea as crazier than Zuko being in a regular habit of helping people. "Just, you know, problems. Bully soldiers, corrupt governors, bandits, pirates, runaway brides... Uncle handles anything requiring diplomacy and I track people down and set things on fire."

A further choking fit at this straightforward summary of the prince's talents distracted Sokka sufficiently that when the other boy came to a sudden stop he ran into his back, almost knocking them both forward before Zuko grabbed at the remains of a vine to steady them. "Watch it!"

"Sorry." They had come to a drop off where the narrow tunnel opened up into a larger space. As the fire around Zuko's hand intensified, they could see a cave perhaps a dozen yards across, coated floor to ceiling in the writhing vines. Two bundled shapes could be seen near the ceiling, one struggling faintly against the plants, and a soft sobbing could be heard.

The fire prince blasted the ground under the moving shape and backed up a few steps. "If you want to help, jump down there." Sokka didn't really like taking orders from a firebender, but couldn't think of a non petty objection, so he sheathed his machete and launched himself towards the bare patch, torch in hand. As he regained his feet and blew on the torch to get it bright again, he heard a few running steps and looked up in time for the admittedly impressive sight of Zuko leaping straight across to grab hold of the vines above him. Producing a flame dagger like the ones he had threatened Sokka with at their first meeting, he sliced neatly through the entangling plants, revealing a small boy who shouted first in relief and then fear when Zuko roughly pulled him free and dropped him to the floor with a yell of "Catch!".

"Little more warning next time?" the water tribesman yelled angrily as he managed to break the child's fall. Seeing he wasn't going to get any response, he looked at the boy in his arms. "Um, Chang, right? Are you okay?"

"Wow! He can do fire daggers! Did you see that?" The fear seemed to have fled before a surge of admiration for the fire prince, who was currently climbing across the vine covered walls, letting them grab him enough to keep him up before burning himself loose to move on. "My brother is training for the army and he says fire daggers are super hard, but that guy did one while hanging from the plants, he must be the best firebender ever and did you see that jump and he..."

"Yeah, yeah, he's all cool like that, don't bother to thank me for stopping you from breaking your neck or anything..." Sokka looked up to where the object of worship had made it to the unmoving bundle and placed a hand on it. After a second, Zuko simply left that one and pushed off the wall to land in the cleared patch with them. Sokka couldn't help but notice that the vines were starting to encroach back into their area and in fact all of the plants were becoming significantly more active since Zuko had freed the boy. "The other one, are they...?"

"No body heat left, they must have been taken a while ago. The woman had mentioned other disaopearances." The prince knelt slightly before the little boy. "Chang, can you run?"

Chang seemed a little startled by the closer view of his savior, and Sokka felt a brief moment of pity. Can't be fun to have a face that **literally **scares children... But the boy shook it off and answered, "I don't think so, it was all squeezy and I feel wobbly..."

"Argh, of course not, um okay, water tribe, can you carry him and use that big knife?"

"It's Sokka, and yeah, if I leave the torch, but you light things up pretty good... um this is looking bad though."

Zuko's eyes were darting around the cavern, clearly also realizing that the vines were taking a more active interest. "Right, kneel down and hold him close." The price was biting out rapid orders now and for once Sokka wasn't inclined to take time arguing. "I'm going to count to three, both of you take a deep breath and breathe** out **on three, then we run like crazy, got it?" Both of them nodded and the warrior cowered down, wrapping his arms protectively around the small boy.

"One..." Zuko took a bending stance.

"Two..." He folded his arms to his chest and tucked his chin down, taking a deep breath in as Sokka and Chang did the same.

"THREE!" The firebender flung his arms wide and a sphere of flame exploded out from him in all directions. Sokka could smell singed hair and even though Zuko had pushed the flames up and out rather than down towards the two at his feet, the reason for his breathing instructions was perfectly clear. If he had breathed in during that momentary inferno... even his first breath afterwards seemed to dry out his lungs.

Then a hand was yanking him up and he had the boy slung over one shoulder while they ran. The blast had cleared enough of the covering vines that they could now see a path up to the tunnel mouth. Zuko did his part on the remaining vines, which had pretty much gone crazy rushing towards them, but Sokka could see that his flame blasts were weaker and the firebender was panting like he had just sprinted a mile. No problem, though, more targets remained for the machete that way.

Neither spoke or slowed down until they had left the tunnel behind and collapsed amid the darkened ruins outside. "Wow..." Sokka gasped once he thought he could talk again. "Now that... **that **was some firebending. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but I've never seen you do anything like that..."

Zuko made a sound that might have been a laugh if he wasn't gasping for breath. "It's not... exactly a good... combat technique. To much buildup... nothing left after... and really, how often... do you need to... destroy everything around you... you know?"

"Well, probably not as often as you do... but seriously, nice job. Don't think there'll be much plant monster left to bug anyone now."

"Actually... speaking of that, I need to ask you a favor."

"Um," this was unusual. "Well, you can** ask**..."

Zuko had sat up, largely recovered from the exertion, and now he looked back at the cave mouth with a very familiar determined set to his jaw. "Now that Chang's safe, I want to go back in there and try to burn that thing out at it's roots. There's probably little enough of it left that it's safe to do it, but I can't count on the colony slugs to take care of it before it grows back enough to be a danger again. And I'd rather deal with it now and be ready to leave when I get back to my ship." His mouth twisted in a half amused, half annoyed grimace. "If I bring Chang back first, Uncle will try to make me eat and rest, and probably drink some sort of appropriate tea for the situation before he lets me come back."

Ignoring Sokka's soft snort at the image of the fire prince being babied, he continued, "So, if you could take Chang down to the dock and just watch and make sure he gets on my ship, I can take care of it now, and be sure nothing like this happens again."

The water tribesman looked at the cave mouth too, noticing in the light of the rising moon that all of the flowering vines had been burned away. "Yeah, I can see wanting to solve the problem permanently before moving on... okay, but if I get arrested by the town guards, I'm totally blaming you."

Zuko smirked. "As terrible as that risk to me is, if you demand to see General Iroh confidently enough, they'll probably take you to him. Then once he's served you tea and tried to run your life for you, you'll be free to go..."

Sokka couldn't help it, he laughed at what he was pretty sure was Zuko deliberately making a joke. "Is it good tea?"

"It's excellent tea, from what I hear, I'm not that good a judge."

"Well, then I'll definitely take the risk." He stood and helped up Chang, who had been happily staring at the fire prince the whole time and murmuring things like _"Biggest fire blast ever..." _and _"Kun is never gonna believe this..." _Feeling awkward and not wanting to leave just yet, he gestured to the cave mouth. "So, you don't like flowers?"

"Hrm? Oh, those are Sleepy Violets, they have a chemical that makes you sort of calm and off your guard... a lot of Fire Nation nobles will put them on the walls of their estates to make anyone sneaking in a little careless. Did the Avatar eat a few or something?"

Sokka laughed again, remember the huge breath Aang had taken in front of them. "Or something, I guess that explains** that**... well, um..." Take care? See you around? Thanks for not leaving me to die?

Zuko was already walking back to the cave. "Thank you, Sokka," he said over his shoulder.

"What?"

"That would have been a lot harder if you hadn't stayed to help and Chang might have gotten hurt. So thank you."

"Oh. Well, you're welcome..." Zuko had disappeared from sight. "Okay then, kid, let's get you back to your mom."


	2. Questions and answers

Sokka watched the little boy run up the gangplank, saw one of the figures on the deck stand and embrace the child. It was a nice moment, too bad Zuko hadn't brought the child back himself, gotten to see the moment close up, not hiding in the shadows as he was. It might have done the angry jerk some good to see a touching scene of family love...

The water tribesman found the thought hard to maintain. Zuko hadn't been too angry helping the child, and if he was still a bit of a jerk, well, he'd gotten the job done. And stayed to make sure the job was finished, even though, like Sokka and his companions, he'd be leaving this area soon. And he'd let Aang go, walked away from a perfect oppertunity because a child he thought of as a 'random colonial brat' needed help.

Sokka wasn't used to thinking of the fire prince with anything other than hate or maybe fear, but on the long walk down to the docks, listening to Chang burble on about how strong and powerful and brave Zuko had been, he had to admit that a small glimmer of respect had reared it's ugly head. Ugly, because he didn't see much use in respecting a guy trying to destroy the world's last hope. Zuko was a bad guy, the _prince_ of bad guys in a very literal sense, but in Sokka's world bad guys didn't put aside their goals to save little kids, and the contridiction was spinning round in his head.

If there was one thing Sokka didn't like, besides firebenders and being hungry of course, it was not understanding something. Which somewhat explained why instead of heading southwest of the village, on the most direct path to where they had begun camping before all the interuptions, he retraced his steps back towards the cave. Maybe he'd run into the prince on his way back. Maybe their informal truce would still be in effect. Maybe he'd come up with a better way of assauging his curiousity than "so, whats up with you not being a complete monster?" Never hurt to try.

When he realized he was almost back to the cave, the water tribesman figured he'd missed his chance. Either Zuko had somehow slipped past him when their paths crossed, or he had taken different way back to his boat. Or he had somehow tracked Aang and Katara in the dark and was menacing them even now... what if he hadn't really even gone back into the cave any longer than it took to get Sokka to head off? What if while Sokka was taking the long way home his family had been captured? What if...

Then he saw a flicker of light as he took the last turn out of the trees. A fire had been kindled among the ruins, and a figure sat facing it on one of the crumbled benches, back straight, one leg folded the other stretched out awkwardly. As he got closer, Sokka realised that the fire prince had his eyes closed and was taking deep deliberate breaths, like Aang did when he meditated. Then he stopped in shock, because the fire also seemed to be taking deep breaths, rising and falling in time with Zuko's chest. It was an almost hypnotic sight and for a moment, Sokka just wanted to sit and watch, maybe even try to time his breaths the same.

"I take it you didn't get captured by the town guard?"

"Yeep! Um, I mean, no, no problems, Chang got on the ship fine, lots of hugging and crying from what I could see..."

"Oh. Glad I missed it." The prince sounded too tired to be properly contemptuous, though. Sokka tore his eyes away from fire to get a closer look and gasped. What he had assumed was just a shadow from the moonlight was an ugly, almost bleeding bruise stretching from the right side of Zuko's neck to his cheekbone. A similar mark adorned his left arm from bicep to shoulder.

"What happened to you?"

"Finishing the job turned out to be... harder than I anticipated." The fire prince kept his voice steady, but Sokka noticed the fire flaring up for a moment before Zuko began the deliberate breaths again.

"You should get back to your ship, get some ice and stuff on those, how did that even happen?"

"It..." the fire flared again and the prince's face twisted for a moment with something not quite identifiable. "I'm going back soon, I just need to... to center myself before I figure out what to do with this ankle."

Ankle? Sokka remembered that the other teen had been keeping one leg out rather than a full meditative pose. He moved forward instictively. "Here, let me take a look."

"No!" Another brightening of the fire. "No, I can't accept your help."

"Can't accept?" That was interesting. Not _don't need _or even _don't want_. "You accepted my help earlier. What's the difference?"

"You weren't helping me, you were helping Chang at the same time I was. He owes you for that."

Ah. Sokka couldn't say whether he really wanted to help a firebender that badly, but the idea that Zuko would feel indebted was an interesting piece of the earlier puzzle. "So is this just a national pride that you wouldn't want to owe the Water Tribe one, or...?"

A soft snort. "Capturing the Avatar is the only thing that matters. I'm not going to be obligated to one of his protecters."

"Seems like the_ random colonial brat _mattered too."

"That's different."

"Why?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" The surge in the fire matched the yell.

"I have a natural curiousity." After a moment, Sokka moved forward again and started removing the prince's boot.

"I said-"

"Yeah I heard what you said, but I came back this way anyway because I was wondering about something. Like I said, natural curiousity." Even unlaced, the boot didn't seem to be coming off well, so he used the edge on his boomerang to cut at a seam. "So I figure it this way. I'll get this wrapped up for you, and even help you back to your ship, and you answer my questions for the time that takes. I get something out of it right away, and you don't owe me anything." He glanced up, closer than he'd ever really observed the firebender and was struck for a moment by his eyes. Were they really_ that _golden or was it just the firelight reflecting? He shook it off. "Deal?"

Zuko considered for a moment. "I'm not answering any question I consider treasonous, or insanely personal."

"Fair enough." Sokka paused a moment while he finally got a good look at the ankle. Looked like a really bad sprain, but not broken. He started unwrapping his arm bands and considered questions. Might as well start with something of use to the group before he tried to figure the prince out personally. "Hrm, I won't ask you what your plans are, but what do you and Zhao know or suspect about our group's strategy and long term destinations?"

Even though Zuko hadn't been focusing on the fire it still jumped a little. "First of all, there is no 'me and Zhao'. In case you didn't notice him trying to** arrest **me at the fire temple." Sokka suspected he was being glared at, but had gotten a wrap loose and was trying to remember the best way to start an ankle bandage, so he didn't look. "But he's an asshole, not an idiot, so I'm sure he knows the basics of Avatar lore, or at least has someone on his staff smart enough to tell him."

The prince's voice took on an amost sing-song quality, the tone of a student reciting an incredibly boring lesson that he had nonetheless been forced to accept into his memory by blunt repetition. "After being identified, the Avatar traditionaly traveled to each of the other three nations, living by their traditions while learning to bend their native elements. The nations were visited in the order that avatars are born, thus Roku went first to the Air Temples, then the Water Tribe and finally the Earth Kingdom before he could fully realize his power. Which is dumb if you ask me," he continued in a more normal voice, "but still, the Avatar is an airbender, so he needs water next, and he's not going to master it learning from a self taught girl and a stolen scroll. So you need to get to the Northern Water Tribe, where there are still waterbending masters. Though it seems that either none of you can read a map, the Avatar has the attention span of a sugared up chipmunk frog or airbenders are philosophically opposed to traveling efficiently."

"Hey, I read maps really well!" Sokka blushed slightly, "But Aang's in charge of it... I think it's a combination of the second two options... And what's dumb about the order avatars learn in?"

Zuko shrugged. "It just seems to me that since the avatar is in touch with all of his past lives, and I've gotten the impression that the most recent one is in many ways the closest... Well, shouldn't that avatar's element be the easiest one to master, aside from the one he was born into? Why save the element and culture he should be closest to for last? It just seems strange."

"Huh, never thought of that. Still, I'm glad they do it the way they do, at least we know where to find waterbending teachers." Sokka sat back and observed the results of using both arm wraps on the injured ankle. "Ok, let's see if you can put any weight on it."

"I **can** put weight on it regardless, it's a matter of whether it's a good idea in the long term."

The water tribesman snickered. "I don't know if you're being macho or nitpicky, but cut them both out and see how much support it gives."

Zuko stood experimentaly. "Not bad, wouldn't want to play kiau ball on it, but I won't have to hop."

"Good, you gonna let me help you back and ask more questions?" A pondering look crossed the prince's face, and then he nodded shortly. "Okay then, next question. What in the name of Moon and Ocean happened when you went to finish off the plant monster? You look like death warmed over!"

Sokka wondered if the arm that went around his shoulders as they started moving was tense due to the question, or just from touching a dirty peasant. Zuko paused and took a deep breath, glancing back towards the fire and making a geusture with his free hand, snuffing the blaze out completely. After a moment almost long enough to get the question repeated, he spoke very quietly. "It wasn't a plant monster, exactly."

"Really? Seemed pretty plant based to me."

"It was... there was a person there. In a deeper crevice where the vines all had their roots. A water bender of some sort, though I'd never heard of a waterbender controlling plants."

The water tribesman gaped, but some analytical part of his brain took control of his mouth and offered, "Well plants, especially the green parts of plants like leaves and vines have a lot of water in them... just like I guess animals do too, so" whatever he had been about to say was cut off by the distinct shudder that went through the other teen.

"Yeah, that..." Zuko swallowed hard. "I got overconfident plowing through the vines, I was still thinking of it as a living thing, that would be getting weaker as I burned more of it off. So I wasn't prepared to defend when I started getting hit with full strength waterbending. I ended up wrapped pretty tight in wet vines, and there was this... guy there. He was old and he looked like he'd been living underground for quite a while and he was... ranting, I guess. He was pretty far gone."

"Ranting about what?"

"What he'd lost, things the Fire Nation had taken away from what I could make out. He said that he'd take our children and fix them before they could become monsters. Some crazy idea of removing the fire heritage from their blood. And then he reached for me and-" he broke off and Sokka thought he was going to retch for a second. "He somehow used his bending t-to pull the blood out of my skin."

"Oh Spirits." The water tribesman looked again at those livid bruises and wondered if he would need to sit down. "Okay, that's... that's um, yeah okay I'm gonna start planning my next week's worth of nightmares now."

"Trust me, they won't do it justice." A long pause and when Zuko spoke again it was very quiet, almost as if he was talking to himself. "I had to kill him. I couldn't get free to fight and he was going to... take all my blood out. Bleeding to death without a single cut, that's just a strange thought..."

Sokka wasn't going to blame him for the death, waterbending enemy or not, but he was surprised by the regret shown over having to kill. There was a more urgent sense of curiousity at the moment though. "But, I mean, how could you kill him if you couldn't move?"

This time he was pretty sure Zuko **did** start to retch, a convusion swallowed back hard. "I... He was right in front of me... I burned his face. So badly he couldn't breath. He smoothered to death."

Great, there was gonna be a waiting list for nightmares tonight. But still... "But if you were all wrapped up, you said you couldn't get free to fight?"

"Oh." The prince seemed to grasp the central question. "Guess you've never seen me do that... Maybe I shouldn't tell you." He gave the water tribesman a sidelong glance.

"Hey, it's not treasonous or personal, and now I'm gonna go crazy if I don't know!"

A very slight chuckle. "As terrible as that would be..." Sokka growled slightly, but it just made Zuko laugh a little more. The prince actually had a fairly nice laugh, though he seemed to try to cover it by instinct. "Fine, fine..." He took a deep breath and tilted his head back slightly with a look that reminded the water tribesman of someone about to blow a smoke ring. But instead-

"Black Snow, you can** breath **fire? What- how can- that's just... Do that again!" But the firebender was too busy shaking with surpressed laughter to give another demonstration. Letting go of Sokka's shoulder, he settled down to sit a few minutes on a fallen tree until he could speak again.

"My uncle taught it to me, it's not really a combat technique, the range and intensity I can get is far less than normal fireblasts. It's actually almost a side effect of learning to heat the chi within my body and warm myself from the inside." He took the water tribesman's hand and placed it on his forearm. When he breathed out fire again Sokka felt the skin instantly warm. "He taught me when we were first traveling near the South Pole. Uncle was convinced I was going to fall off of the ship while training and didn't want me to get hypothermia."

"Why would you fall of the-"

"I **wouldn't** fall off the ship, and I didn't! It was just some idea he got stuck in his head. Though, to be fair," his tone indicated he didn't particularly enjoy being fair on the subject, "my eye was still bandaged at the time, and he didn't like me practicing active forms with no depth perception."

"Your eye? Oh!" Sokka felt like an idiot for his momentary confusion. While the prince's scar wasn't something that could be forgotten, he realized that he had never really thought of the injury that had caused it. Of course the eye would have been covered for weeks, if not months. "So then, you can see out of it now?"

"Yeah." Zuko got back to his feet, ignoring the water tribesman's offered hand but leaning back on his shoulder as they began walking again. "I had this cream I needed to put on it all the time, to keep the scarring from blinding me, but it also made it take forever to fully heal. My vision out of that eye isn't as detailed, but I have peripheral vision and depth perception, so it's not any sort of handicap in a fight. I've just gotten in the habit of closing it when I'm reading or something like that."

"So how di-"

"Don't." It was a warning, and this clearly was going to fall under the 'insanely personal' exclusion, but it wasn't that angry. Zuko sounded more like Sokka was about to do something stupid, like stick his hand in a fire or eat some poisonous berries.

"Right, sorry." The next question came out without much consideration. "What would it take for you to stop trying to capture Aang?"

"You mean besides suceeding or dying?" Sokka almost laughed. "There's nothing. I mean, there are things that are more _urgent_ than catching the Avatar, like getting Chang to safety or when Uncle got himself captured by earthbenders. But there's nothing more_ important_." The water tribesman was about to say something angry when Zuko spoke again, almost wistfully. "I suppose technically if my father decided to let me come home without the Avatar I wouldn't stick around and keep chasing him for fun... but that doesn't seem likely at this point."

"Let you come home? I... I don't understand."

Zuko looked a little surprised, as if there was some obvious point the other teen had missed. "Well, I suppose Fire Nation gossip wouldn't have made it to the South Pole. It's... look, when I was thirteen, I... made a mistake. I should have- no, I **did** know better, but I did it anyway, and then I compounded my error with weakness when facing the consequences. As a result, I lost my claim to the throne, my honor and my home." The prince's voice was tight, controlled. "I'm banished from the Fire Nation, and the only condition under which I'm allowed to return is if I bring the Avatar with me. So that's what I'm going to do."

"But," Sokka tried to sort of one of the dozens of questions that were clamoring for his attention. "But if you were thirteen, that was years ago!"

"Almost three years."

"But, but... Aang was still in his block of ice then, no one had seen him in a hundred years, no one would have even thought it was posible!"

"My uncle spent a lot of time telling me it was impossible and trying to get me to give up... And yet, for something impossible, I was close enough to see it when he emerged." The prince glanced over. "To be honest, possible and impossible never really factored into it for me. When you only have one option, that's what you do, whether it's possible to suceed or not. I was given one chance to go home, and I wasn't going to let it go just because it was impossible."

Sokka shook his head. "Man, there's determined and then there's just crazy, I wouldn't have even started looking."

"Really? I'm not sure someone who tried to stand up to a battleship with a club has a lot of room to talk about knowing when to give up." Zuko was smiling slightly when the water tribesman looked over in surprise.

"Okay, well, maybe I fall to the_ just crazy _side of the scale sometimes myself, but that's not the point. Though it does bring up another question." Sokka paused uncomfortably, not sure exactly how he wanted to ask this. "After that, when Aang went with you and then escaped... What did you do?"

Zuko looked puzzled at first. "I got my crew unfrozen, dug the ship out of the ice and went to the nearest friendly port for repairs." The puzzled look faded into realization. "You didn't go back to your village after you got him away, did you, just started on your journey?"

"No. It actually took me a day or two to really think about it, and I'm pretty sure Aang and Katara never did... they're both pretty naive in their own ways. It wasn't until we were at the old air temple, and saw what had happened there, it really struck me." Sokka looked down at the path they followed, thinking of the fears he had tried to push aside, knowing there was nothing that could be accomplished by going back to check on Gran Gran or his little warriors. "Aang offered to go with you if you left the village alone... and then he tried to escape before you were even an hour's travel away. I mean, he... he** broke **his end of the bargain."

The prince scowled lightly. "Yes, yes he did, didn't he? I can't say it left me impressed with his sense of honor, though he's so flighty, I suppose he might have just forgotten the bargain already rather than deliberately breaking it."

"Hey! Aang's not... Well, okay, maybe he's a little flighty..."

"But no, I didn't go back to your village, there didn't seem to be any chance you'd returned there, and my ship needed repairs." Zuko glanced over at the water tribesman and admitted, "I didn't really even think about it myself until after I'd had to deal with Zhao and found myself wondering how he would have handled the whole situation."

Sokka paled and stumbled at the suggestion. "Oh man, if Zhao had been the one who showed up there? Spirits, I'm gonna have nightmares about **that** now!"

"Well, everyone needs a few good nightmares about Zhao, I suppose. Probably builds character or something."

The trees were starting to thin out and Sokka could see the lights of the village. "So... if it weren't for the conditions of your banishment you wouldn't care about Aang?"

The prince considered for a moment. "Well, he** is **probably ultimately planning to destroy my nation, so I'm not saying I'd be out hunting frozen frogs with him or whatever insane thing he was doing..."

"What, hey, Aang doesn't want to destroy anything, he's not the destroying type! He just wants to defeat the Fire Lord and end the war!"

"Hmph. Yes of course..."

"What's that supposed to mean, that's what he wants to do!"

"In denial, or just stupid... you would know which better than I would..." At Sokka's outraged gasp, Zuko sighed. "I'd think you would want to look at this realisticly. The Fire Lord is the most powerful fire bender in the world. He's also a very determined man who values power and ambition. If you think 'defeating' my father can mean anything other than killing him, you're being a child."

"And even if the Avatar does kill him, why would that end the war? This war was started by my great grandfather, it has been waged by three fire lords already, and with me banished, my father's death will leave you with Fire Lord Azula." He gave a very distinct shudder.

"Who...?"

"My sister. Not the type to end the war, more likely to burn a few cities the the ground in revenge for Father's death then lead an assault on Ba Sing Se herself just for bragging rights." The prince glanced up, thinking. "I suppose if he killed Father_ and _Azula, that would effectively stop the war at least for a while, since the Fire Nation would be plunged into _civil_ war instead. You'd have the high generals, Sozin's second cousins, and possibly the Fire Sages fighting it out-"

"Ah, stop it! Aang isn't going to kill two fire lords, he's... he's a twelve year old vegitarian!" Sokka glared at the older boy still leaning on his shoulder. "You're just trying to freak me out anyway, if this is your younger sister, she's isn't much older than Katara. She can't be that ruthless yet."

Zuko laughed again, though it wasn't a pleasant one this time. "When Uncle was off at war, Azula commented that if he was killed in battle, our father would be next in line for fire lord, and what a nice thing that would be. She was seven at the time."

The water tribesman was doing a remarkable impression of a fish. "She... her uncle... seven... Wait, but your uncle is still alive and your dad is fire lord, so how...?"

"That's a long story that I don't have all the details on myself. And we seem to be out of time." And indeed, they had reached the docks, almost to where they could be seen by the guards on duty. Zuko stepped away, then unexpectedly extended his hand. "Thank you again for your help with Chang. I'm, er, sorry I said you were bothering me."

"But not that you said I was an idiot?" Sokka grinned and took the prince's wrist, a warrior's handshake. "Thanks for, you know, getting us loose. You should, um, get something on those bruises. And ice the ankle." He watched the tall, confident figure aproach the ship, waving off a sailor's attempt to help and barely allowing himself a limp. Watched a plump older man hug him and insistently pull him to a table talking about food and tea. Heard an annoyed but affectionate sigh and excuses that he would really rather explain everything in the morning and yes he was **fine**, Uncle, no he didn't need to send for the village healer, Uncle, could he **please** go to sleep, Uncle?

And Sokka walked away from the docks for the second time that night, bone weary but with much to think about.


	3. Interlude

**Just a silly little coda for the first part of the story. Next chapter : more action!**

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

"He pinned me to Appa's saddle!" Sokka had rarely been so angry.

Katara tried for soothing. "Look, calm down, we were able to get away, right?"

"Are you paying attention, he pinned me to Appa's saddle with my own boomerang!"

"Sokka, you didn't get hurt, and you could have." Aang, glanced at Katara, not sure why her brother was so mad about this, he'd been less upset the time he'd been paralyzed and dragged around on that weird tracking beast.

"He pinned me to Appa's saddle, with my boomerang,** by my **_**wolftail**_! I'm gonna cut off that stupid ponytail of his next time I see him! Jerk!" The water tribesman flung himself down and crossed his arms in preparation for an intensive pout - then startled and reached inside his tunic.

"What is it?" His sister leaned forward in confusion.

Sokka pulled out a tightly rolled fabric bundle. "You must be kidding me..."

"About what?" Now Aang was curious too.

"He gave me my arm wraps back." Sokka started unrolling them. "The jerk even washed them." When he had fully unrolled the strips, a small piece of paper fell out.

"Ooh, ooh, a note!" The airbender could be excited about just about anything, it seemed. "What's it say?"

The water tribesman was busy wondering if Zuko dragged a personal scribe around on that boat of his or if princes were just taught to have that good calligraphy. Then he focused on the content.

_Water Tribe idiot,_

_Chang's mother asked that I pass on her gratitude for your part in rescuing her son. Also, Uncle was very disappointed that he did not get to inflict tea and advice on you. He has requested that next time you make sure to be captured by the town guard. _

_-Prince Zuko._

"Definitely cutting that ponytail off... Definitely."


	4. Water Tribe rescue part one

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

Climbing an anchor chain should be easy. It's a big chain after all, and big chains have big loops, and big loops make for handy grips. In principle, it should be easy to climb. In reality, anchor chains are coated with seaweed, rust, oil to try to keep off the rust, barnacles and all other manner of things that either shred your hands, or cause you to slip so that your hands run swiftly over the things that shred them. When Sokka got on board, he was going to have a long talk with whoever was supposed to be in charge of anchor chain maintenance.

Or maybe not. "You made it hard for me to sneak onto your ship" probably wouldn't be the most biting criticism.

The water tribesman finally made it to the top of the chain and hung over one of the bars holding the winch for a few minutes getting his strength back. He listened carefully, and heard the sounds of music and laughter continue. He picked out the voice of Zuko's uncle, but not the prince himself. Good. Once he had checked to make sure that the scroll he carried was still dry and intact after his many slips down the chain, he pulled himself onto the deck itself and, avoiding the lights at the front of the ship where most of the crew seemed to be gathered for some sort of music party, found a stairway.

Okay, Sokka didn't know much about Fire Nation ships, but the standard that lower decks were damper and less comfortable probably held true regardless of the kind of vessel, so Zuko's quarters would hopefully be on one of the upper levels. And since the huge noisy smokey engines were to the rear, one would expect the prince to want to be away from them. So, front sections of the upper decks first. A plan.

This small scale plan pleased him to no end, mostly because it was logical, based on sound knowledge and likely to work. His overall plan for the night, on the other hand... Well, to be honest, it was crazy. Crazy, based on vague impressions Katara had spent the last three weeks telling him he was wrong about, and likely to fail spectacularly. But it was the only plan he had. As he crept through the ship, he couldn't help remembering something Zuko had said while they were walking together those weeks ago. "When you only have one option, you do it, even if it's impossible." Something like that, anyway. It had been three weeks, and it's not like he took notes. Then a little over a week ago they had last been attacked by the jerk, and Sokka had sworn ponytail related vengeance. He'd have to set that aside for tonight, though, it probably wouldn't fit into the already impossible plan.

Lots of identical doors to be opened and peeked into. Storage of various sorts, empty sleeping quarters with multiple bunks, one larger room with only a single bed, but from the prominently located teapot, he was guessing that was the uncle's. He must be getting close. This was working. He was sneaking, he was searching, he was following a plan, he-

_WHUMP_.

He was making rather good friends with a very hard metal wall with an arm pinning him there by the neck and a knee pressed into the back of his own in a way that made him think kicking backwards wasn't really worth it right then. And from the voice that spoke quite close to his ear, the plan was, technically, still on track.

"**What** are you doing on my ship?"

"Uh, hey there. You're very quiet when you want to be."

"And you aren't. What are you doing on my ship?"

"Hey, I'm quiet, I just- ack!" Okay, making closer friends with the wall, and he thought maybe he and the wall should see other people for a while. "I just came to talk to you, can we go somewhere your crew won't wander by and also, ow!"

"My crew are all distracted by Uncle's insipid music night, apparently including the cretins who are supposed to be on watch." There was a pause long enough for Sokka to become slightly uncomfortable with the warm breath in his ear. "But fine."

Then he was being yanked down the corridor, stumbling backwards because apparently the prince thought his wolftail was an all purpose Sokka handle and was pulling him by it. "Ow, ow, cut it out you jerk, let go, you're a terrible host, ow, that's attached you know!" He just managed to keep his voice relatively low - the plan was, again** very **technically, still on track for now.

"I would only be a host for someone I_ invited _here. You are what is more commonly known as an intruder." The prince yanked him through a door and kicked it closed behind him before finally letting go of the wolf tail and glaring. "So what do you want?"

"Well, I know this is a longshot, but- holy sealdogs, work out much?" Sokka's brain took a serious plan-detour when he turned around and got a good look at Zuko. Seriously, the vest had been bad enough, but Shirtless-Zuko was just... well, Sokka wasn't sure what, but he was going to go with 'depressing' for now, because he knew he wouldn't be making muscles at his reflection for a while.

The prince's face took on a strained expression. "I am not having this conversation."

"Look, I'm just saying, you know, new rule, you are not allowed to be shirtless around my sister. Just, like, for future reference."

Now Zuko looked as if listening to Sokka was physically hurting him. "I cannot think of any possible situation where that would be a problem, unless she is **also** planning on sneaking onto my ship in the middle of the night and harassing me. Now. Tell me why you are here and then leave, because I'm starting to worry that your level of idiocy might be some sort of disease, and I don't want to catch it!"

"Gee, you're so impatient..." But he reached quickly into his tunic and pulled out the scroll before the prince could start yelling again, or possibly firebending. "There's kind of a situation, I don't know if you've seen these..." He handed it over, but instead of unrolling it, Zuko just looked at the red mark on the outside and then Sokka's hand.

"You're bleeding." He didn't sound particularly concerned, but he didn't sound annoyed anymore either.

"Oh, hey, didn't realize it was that bad... um, yeah, your anchor chain has barnacles."

"Yes, also rust and filth. You should wash that." The prince gestured towards a door to the rear of the room. "Though you'd be easier to put up with if you couldn't move your jaw."

Zuko had started looking at the scroll as he spoke, so the water tribesman bit back a response to the insult and entered what turned out to be an impressive washroom for a battleship. Well, yeah, prince and all that. Still, a shower and decent sized tub, hot and cold running water... he scrubbed his palms with some soap he found in a basin beside a razor and considered checking his abused wolftail - but there wasn't a mirror. Somehow, even though he'd been told to enter the room, the simple observation made him feel like he'd been snooping, prying into something private. He shoved the feeling to the back of his mind and stepped back into the prince's chambers.

Zuko had dropped the scroll on the room's single bunk while he retrieved something from a small chest. It wasn't a long message - a decree from the Fire Nation military that the Shen Shi village of the Earth Kingdom had broken the terms of it's non aggression pact (a weasely way of describing forced occupation and theft if Sokka had ever heard one) by aiding and sheltering the Avatar. It would be 'removed' the following day at noon by the destruction of the dam which prevented it's location from being a flood plain. The decree didn't actually say that the people of the village would be locked in their own houses at the time, but it didn't really need to.

"Your hand." Sokka was annoyed that he responded to the command without thinking, placing his more wounded hand palm up in the firebender's outstretched one. He felt it gripped with more strength than seemed strictly necessary. "So Zhao's a bastard and it's a trap," the prince commented, gesturing to the scroll, "Why exactly are you telling me about it?"

"Well, yeah, it's obviously a trap for Aang, but I scouted the village this afternoon and it seems to be one with live bait." Zuko was rubbing some ointment from a small ornate tin onto the abraded flesh, but rather than the antiseptic sting he was expecting, it caused a slight tingling numbness. "They were putting barrels of what I'm pretty sure was blasting jelly by the dam and there's- yeowch!" The water tribesman tried to yank his hand back as one pale finger grazed the worst of the cuts and suddenly became red hot, but the grip stayed firm and the heat remained for a full second before the prince stopped and looked at the results.

"Hold still. The rest are shallow enough to have gotten clean with soap, but you've got a couple of punctures that aren't bleeding." Ignoring Sokka's very angry glare, the prince efficiently cauterized two other spots, then moved his hand in a way that almost seemed like one of Katara's bending moves and the pain suddenly eased as if he had placed ice on the burns. "Of course he's really prepared to blow the dam, Zhao doesn't bluff about killing. And there's the chance the Avatar will show up but not act until the danger is immediate. Give me your other hand."

"I think I prefer the waterbending version of first aid to the fire one." But he complied and tolerated the treatment of a single spot on the less injured hand. "So, um, are you ever gonna put a shirt on?"

"I'm clinging to the hope that you are going to leave soon and I'll be able to go back to sleep. You still haven't explained why you're here instead of off saving the village with the Avatar."

"Well, that's the thing, ya see, Aang... Aang isn't available for saving villages this very moment." Sokka wasn't going to detail the reasons for the monk's weird trance, which he had mostly heard as _Weak spot blah blah blah Spirit World blah blah Roku blah blah greater understanding_. Or admit that the mental absence that had started just before he found the first of the notices had been inspired by his own questions on how eliminating one Fire Lord would end the war when there was another waiting in the wings. "And Katara won't leave him... she doesn't think Zhao would really blow the dam if he thinks Aang didn't even see the announcements." Zuko snorted softly, and the tribesman couldn't really come up with a good defense for this sort of naivete. "And I have a plan but I, um, I mean I know I'm pretty awesome and all, but I don't think I can do it on my own..."

In spite of his tension, it was kinda fun to see that exact moment when the look on the prince's face shifted from questioning annoyance to complete incredulity. "Are you seriously telling me that you snuck unto my ship to ask for my help** in fighting the Fire Nation**?"

Sokka coughed. "Well, that is... Yes?" He rushed on before he could be thoroughly mocked or set on fire. "Look, it's an occupied village, there's no benders or warriors there anymore, just a bunch of old folks, moms and kids. And it's not like helping Aang because he can't even get there, and they're all gonna be killed for no reason at all, not even to help the Fire Nation any! And I figured since you're not a complete monster and you really seem to hate Zhao that maybe..." He was suddenly too exhausted to continue and he found himself sitting abruptly on the bunk like a puppet with it's stings cut. It had been a crazy plan and he'd known it.

"You really are an idiot, you know." Zuko's voice had shifted to across the room even though he hadn't heard footsteps. There was a rustling of cloth and then of paper as the quiet voice continued, not angry anymore. "I don't think you even realize what it is you're asking. Zhao is a sadistic bastard, but he's an admiral, appointed by direct decree of the Fire Lord himself. And his plan may be monstrous, but it's within his authority to carry out. Even if I retained any political standing, I wouldn't be able to order a halt to this, and directly attacking soldiers carrying out lawful orders... That's treason." The prince sat on the other end of the bunk from him, and Sokka glanced up to notice that he had put on a high neck dressing gown of dark silk, and was holding a rolled parchment.

"I hadn't thought about it in quite those terms but I knew you wouldn't want to openly... I was thinking that I have a spare tunic and I could paint your face... I mean, everyone knows Aang has Water Tribe friends and my dad and his men have been seen in these waters recently, so..."

"So you figured two warriors instead of one wouldn't be cause for too many questions? That's... not bad, I suppose." Zuko unrolled the parchment between them, revealing a map of the province. "The other problem is that Shen Shi is a fair distance from here, even if I could get a couple of rhinos off the ship without making a fuss - I can't involve Uncle in this, you know. It risks him enough when I cross the lines, if he had any foreknowledge of it..."

Sokka felt hope rising in his chest. If Zuko wasn't just talking hypothetically, if he was really considering it... "Getting there won't be a problem, Appa is waiting a mile or so down the shore. Are you-"

"The Avatar's sky bison? You didn't say it was along, I thought you were on your own?"

"Oh yeah, I mean, Appa's sort of part of my plan, though I'm not sure how much, you know, advance direction he can take. I mean he seems smart enough, but I've never tried telling him 'wait this long then do this' sort of stuff." The hope was rising.

"Sky bison are very intelligent," Zuko said with confidence. "They were actually the first airbenders and taught the original Air Nomads. They are more companions to their airbenders than just mounts or pets."

"Really? How do you know so much about it?"

The prince shrugged as he reached for another sheet of parchment and a brush. "I spent almost three years looking for the last of the airbenders, it seemed logical to learn as much about them as I could." He began sketching out a larger version of the area surrounding Shen Shi and its dam. "So what exactly is this plan of yours?"

**lineline**

It had taken around half an hour for the plan to be fully hammered out, with Zuko's reminder that Zhao had access to the Yu Yan archers taken into account. The prince had never actually said he was going to help, just worked on the planning, stepped out to gather a few things and gave Sokka a sack to bring with him to Appa. The water tribesman snuck back off the ship the same way he had come on, with the addition of borrowed gloves, and the firebender simply stalked off openly, loudly complaining that he couldn't sleep with the racket and would take a walk and maybe sleep in an inn (and no, for the last time, he wasn't helping with Music Night.)

"So can you really play the tsungi horn?" Sokka asked cheerfully when they were walking together towards where Appa had hidden. Zuko gave him a glare which he roughly translated as_ I was hoping you didn't hear that request from my uncle and by the way you're an idiot_.

"Among other instruments, yes. I haven't in years, though, and I'm just as glad."

"Right, because music is related to happiness, which you're apparently allergic to..."

"Hrmph. Music is related to incredibly boring lessons I had to slog through before I could see my firebending or weapons trainers. It's in the same category as calligraphy, etiquette and memorizing ten generations worth of my ancestors."

"You know your ancestors to ten generations?"

"Well, all of them to five generations, Fire Lords and their spouses to ten. Why am I having this conversation?"

"Something to do while we walk." He glanced at the prince, wondering if he could get away with asking about the topics of their prior walk and decided not to risk it. "I didn't think firebenders trained with weapons."

"Most don't. It was more of a hobby, something I could do if all my other tutors were satisfied with my progress." Sokka got the impression that Zuko hadn't had easily satisfied tutors. "Turns out to have been a lot more useful than the tsungi horn, though."

"Yeah, I suppose, hey Appa!" He ran over and rubbed the bison's giant nose and got a lick for his troubles. "Good news, buddy, we are on for the village saving! Um, you've met Zuko... sort of..."

"Hi big fella." Sokka almost pulled something spinning around in shock, because he thought he'd seen and heard the extent of non-angry-Zuko in the cave with the plant monster, but this was a voice the prince hadn't even used on Chang. "We're going to be working together tonight, okay? I brought you a treat." And whatever totally relaxed sounding guy the Angry Jerk had suddenly been replaced with was holding out a small fruit and stepping up with confidence - not the_ I can kick your ass whenever I want to _confidence the water tribesman was used to, but a gentle_ we're gonna be great friends and neither of us wants to hurt each other _confidence that took him back to his village, before the men all left, watching Bato approach a half feral polar dog which he would soon have working in a sled team like he'd raised it from a pup.

Appa gave an only slightly skeptical groan before taking the treat... and then licked his huge lips and head butted the prince with great enthusiasm. "Okay, yes, I have some more," he chuckled just a tiny bit as he pulled another fruit from a pouch at his belt, "but we'll save some for when we're done, okay? Uncle only has so many tea-apples around."

"So, second rule," Sokka heard himself saying before his brain could filter what was coming out of his mouth. "You are totally not allowed to talk to my sister in that voice... particularly while shirtless." Golden eyes narrowed into a more familiar glare, this one seeming to mean _you weren't supposed to notice me acting like I actually have a soul and by the way you're an idiot_. "What, I'm just saying!"

**lineline**

Sokka painted his face in a small mirror he'd found in Katara's pack, glad for Appa's smooth flying. He hadn't done this since they had left the south pole, and he realized as he applied the paint that it was for the first time as a man of the Water Tribe. He wondered what Zuko would think of his tribe's traditions and how he had officially left his boyhood behind, not by leaving home or fighting with the avatar or even kissing a girl but by captaining a boat in successful ice dodging. Then he wondered why he cared what an angry jerk of a fire prince would think.

"My ancestors' ashes are probably writhing in their urns..." the angry jerk in question moved to the front of the sky bison saddle with reasonable confidence for a man who had never flown before. Then again he had been living on a ship for a while. The water tribesman looked up and was surprised in spite of himself. He'd given Zuko his spare tunic to change into, and with blue and white leather wraps around his boots it turned the prince's black shirt and leggings into something distinctly Water Tribe. What he hadn't expected was for the tall topknot to be taken down, part of it slicked and stuck forward to where the hairline should have been and the rest pulled back into a passable approximation of Sokka's wolftail. With the pale skin in between the outfit and the hair, he looked like a water tribe ghost.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure the Moon and Ocean are going to hit me with a tidal wave for putting wolfpack paint on a firebender, so we've both got spiritual problems." He finished the last bits of his own paint then gestured to a spot in front of him. "Come on, we've got just enough time before we get there, I think." The other teen visibly hesitated, and when he knelt down beside the water tribesman his face had become carefully blank. What was the problem... Oh. Sokka felt like an idiot for not giving him the option of doing his own facepaint, but offering now would probably be taken the wrong way. Well, if there was a right way. _Oops, I forgot you have a disfiguring facial injury you're probably not keen on having touched_ would get Sokka fried for offering any form of sympathy, and _ew I don't wanna touch that gross scar_ would be rude and, well, untrue.

Okay, Zuko had accepted him doing the warpaint and the best way to proceed without making this mindbogglingly awkward would be to just pretend there was no issue. So he dipped three fingers on each hand into the grey base paint and spread it from the center of the prince's forehead back to both ears. Sure, he didn't do his own paint symmetrically, but Zuko didn't know that, and he could tell from the incremental relaxation of his shoulders that it would have been worse to pussyfoot around touching the burned area. Keep it casual.

"So does the Fire Nation have any sort of manhood rituals?"

Two very distinct blinks. "Er, what?"

Gee, hadn't the guy ever heard of casual conversation? Sokka plunged on, trying to distract himself from the differing skin textures under each hand and the suicidal urge to ask questions. How did it happen? Does it hurt to be touched? How long has it been? Can I kiss it and make it better? Wait, what?

"Um, yeah, I had been thinking that since we ran into some of the Water Tribe fleet and I went ice dodging, I'm officially a man of the tribe, and it got me wondering if the Fire Nation has any sort of tests, or how you mark, you know, officially becoming an adult."

"Oh. Well, not tests, and it's not very ritualistic..." The prince was making an effort not to move his face too much while talking, and paused while Sokka put the white on his jaw. "Thirteen is when I was fully invested as my father's heir, before that I would only have been allowed to rule though a regent if he died. But I couldn't have served in the army like my uncle until I was fifteen, and even then I would have needed Father's consent. Aside from getting married, I can't think of any definitive passage into adulthood that everyone knows about."

"Huh, that's kinda funny that they'd let you rule the country two years before you could join the army. Close your eyes a sec." He applied the last of the black accents and sat back to observe his work. "Wow."

"Royalty is strange sometimes. So you're finished?" The golden eyes opened again, completely disconcerting surrounded by the familiar warpaint. He looked in the mirror that was wordlessly offered. "I should send a hawk and make sure there hasn't been an earthquake in the Hall of Ancestors..."

Sokka found himself laughing. "I dunno, I think it's a good look for you. You certainly don't have to worry about being recognized. And just in time too." He scrambled up to Appa's head to guide him down to a spot overlooking the path between the dam and the village. "Okay, buddy, you know the plan. When a big group of firebenders heads to the dam, you go to the village and break everyone out. Once the villagers are all gone and safe, come pick us up at the dam. Can you do that?" The sky bison gave an agreeable grumble, then a meaningful whuff towards Zuko.

"Fine, one more, but the rest are your reward when we're done." The prince tossed another tea apple into the waiting maw and went back to strapping on the weapons he had brought from his ship.

"Whoa, are those what I think they are?" Sokka darted forward to inspect the whalebone scimitar and curved dagger. "Where did you get these?"

"One of Uncle's uncontrollable shopping trips." The tone of mixed affection and annoyance was becoming familiar. "He loves to collect things from the different nations. I haven't practiced with them a lot, but I noticed the scimitar is pretty close to my broadswords when I use them combined. And I've done enough sword and dagger work to get by."

For one moment all Sokka wanted to do was skip the whole 'village rescuing' idea and spend the next few hours talking weapons and fighting styles with a boy his age. Sometimes having a twelve year old pacifist for a best friend was unsatisfying to a warrior. But he could be strong. Business before pleasure. And business and pleasure before figuring out when he started thinking of hanging out with Zuko as pleasure. "Okay, let's move."

**A/N : This chapter was going to be the action one, but Zuko and Sokka just would not stop interacting and get with the village saving! I'm like 'shuttap and go kick some butts' and Sokka's like 'no way, Zuks is great to interact with, and this story is all about getting to know each other' and Zuko is glaring at Sokka like **_**don't ever call me 'Zuks' again and by the way you're an idiot**_**. So I smacked the both of them and found a place for a chapter break. **_**NEXT **_**chapter, action. Lots of it.**

**A/N The Second : Sometimes I'm not sure how obscure my medical knowledge is, so just in case anyone was lost by Zuko's comment about Sokka not being able to move his jaw - tetanus, commonly caused by a blood infection, is also traditionally called lockjaw because spasms in the jaw muscles are one of the primary symptoms. They can make it very difficult to eat or, more importantly to dealing with Sokka, talk. So if you get any puncture wounds, make sure you've had your shots in the last ten years or better. End obscure trivia/PSA.**


	5. Water Tribe rescue part two

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

The only time Sokka had worked with another warrior as anything resembling an equal had been the 'mission' with Jet. Before the rebel had shown himself a bully and later a liar about it, it had been exciting to be accepted by a clearly experienced fighter. Jet had been all winks and smiles and enthusiastic compliments when Sokka showed skill or a good idea.

Zuko... wasn't. Zuko was all business, all competence, and expected nothing else. Sokka got a sharp glare when he made too much noise and no acknowledgement when he was doing well. When Sokka spotted one of the archers they had expected on guard around the village and silently pointed out his perch in the crook of a tree, Zuko merely nodded and held up two fingers indicating they should be looking for a partner nearby. The prince spotted that one down in the bushes near the tree trunk and gave a simple plan in gestures - twenty seconds then use the boomerang on the one in the tree. He barely waited for a nod and disappeared into the undergrowth. When Sokka loosed his weapon at the count of twenty, he heard a grunt from the bushes at almost the same moment, and by the time he made his way there, Zuko was already binding and gagging the two unconscious men.

Jet would have grinned fit to split his face and slapped Sokka on the shoulder, told him how awesome he was and wow that boomerang was a pretty damn cool weapon. Zuko just made sure he had boomerang back and breathed "Probably another pair on this side of the village so stay quiet."

There was another pair, and Sokka spotted them both this time. He was beginning to think Water Tribe had better night vision. They had to deal with a three month night after all, and Fire Nation seemed to prefer acting in the daytime. When Zuko signaled the same plan but with 30 seconds lead time, the water tribesman shook his head. Moved his hand from his eye towards the higher archer and shook his head again. No good line for the shot. Jet would have given him a deep look of sincerity, told him he** knew **Sokka could do it, he had** faith **in him, and Sokka would have given it a try. Zuko simply nodded curtly and gave a signal for quiet as they moved to a better location. When the warrior was sure he had a shot, the prince reminded him of the 30 seconds and disappeared again. Two more archers down, still no shoulder slaps.

When they got to the village, Zuko followed his lead to the house he had picked from afar that afternoon. The fire prince broke the lock on the door with heated hands and stood guard while Sokka slipped in to get the last person they needed on board with their plan.

"Did it have to take that long?" was the annoyed whisper he got on emerging again.

"Well, no, but I decided to gossip a while... yes it had to, she was suspicious of me and even when I showed her the notice it took a while. But we're good, there's a couple of kid earthbenders left and tunnels under a lot of the houses, they'll be ready to run when Appa gets here."

"Okay, let's go." No_ nice job, Sokka_, no winks or grins. Sokka felt a little taken for granted. Then he felt a little complimented by that. Then he shoved it all aside and got going again.

There were more Yu Yan around the dam, who had to be taken out before they could move on to Phase Two. The trees had thicker branches here and a couple of times, Zuko signaled Sokka to sneak up and take out the one on the ground when there was no hope of a decent boomerang shot. It was nerve wracking, knowing he wasn't as sneaky as the prince, convinced they would hear him any second, charging the last few yards with his club while Zuko seemed to appear out of no where, leaping into the tree like a catsnake to bring down the archer there. But it worked each time, and by the knowledge Zuko had of the archers' usual strategy, there should be only two more pairs left before they stopped being sneaky and started making a big fuss at the dam.

And then things went wrong.

It was another thick tree, and Sokka moved in as close as he dared before charging. He heard the sound of Zuko landing in the tree as he hit the archer on the ground. The club was dropped immediately so that he could start binding the unconscious man, and it was just as it hit the ground that he realized his mistake. Standing up out of the bushes, drawing breath for a yell, was a third man.

Everything seemed to slow down and Sokka saw all the little details, made connections he didn't want to. This man was younger than the other archers he'd seen, and the markings on his face were incomplete in comparison. A Yu Yan in training, assigned to an experienced pair to learn from them. Bored with his first 'stakeout', he'd probably been dozing off when they attacked. He was young. He was inexperienced. He was going to alert the last pair, and neither Sokka nor Zuko using only weapons could handle archers of this caliber without the element of surprise.

Sokka's hand had been dropping to his belt for rope, but grabbed his skinning knife instead. He wished later he could say that he didn't have time to think, but in the strange slowness he thought quite clearly. It had to be the throat to stop the sound. He drew and swung in the same motion and the warning yell came out as a soft gurgle and blood over his hand. He saw the light fade in hazel eyes and the third man collapsed lifeless at his feet.

_Blood. Blood on his hand, still warm. Cooling though, like the body would be cooling. Dead body. Dead from his knife, deep through the neck. Dead because he was going to yell. No weapon in his hands, could have been subdued easily, but not before he yelled. Dead for the plan. Sokka's plan. Sokka's plan, Sokka's knife, dead body. Death on his knife on his hand oh Spirits..._

Earlier that night, Sokka had bragged about being a man of his tribe, and made plans as a battle tested warrior. Now, on his knees, vomiting so hard he was shaking from it, he felt like a fool. Like a child who had been playing and couldn't handle it turning real. He had to get it together.

He heard the thump of Zuko landing beside him with the unconscious archer from the tree. It had happened so fast, he had killed a man and turned into a child about it by the time the prince could get there. Had to get it together. Even Jet - shoulder slapping, winking, nice job, you can do it, Jet - had thought him weak over his reluctance to kill. Zuko would be disgusted. Angry. Contemptuous. He'd realize Sokka was no warrior and give up on the plan. Get it together. He waited for the insults, the mockery.

He felt a warm hand take his elbow and firmly turn him away from the the body, the blood and vomit. Cool water ran over his hand and then a flask was placed in his other as a cloth wiped the blood away. "Rinse your mouth and drink a bit. You'll feel better." Simple orders, with neither anger nor concern, just as when he'd been told to clean his injuries earlier.

It did feel better. He rinsed his mouth twice and swallowed just enough water to wash the bile out of the back of his throat. He almost splashed some on his face, but remembered the warpaint. He turned to see the two Yu Yan bound and gagged, dirt kicked over the blood and vomit and the dead body moved into the bushes. He felt a slight surge in his stomach, but pushed it down. He held the waterflask out without looking Zuko in the eye. "Thanks."

A hand gripped his shoulder. "It's easier the first time in a straight up fight - if you're defending yourself... I didn't know." The same flat tone to the whisper, but the words could be taken as comfort. And some tiny part of Sokka almost laughed, because it sort of sounded like something you'd say to a recently deflowered maiden, but he held it back because if he laughed now it would come out hysterical and they couldn't afford the time or the noise.

"Thanks," he said again, but looked up this time. "Let's go."

The last pair of archers were in a sparser tree, and they used the boomerang tactic. As they bound and gagged them, Sokka looked at the horn on one's belt. All the pairs had had one. "Zuko, do you know the signals they use on these? I mean, could we call for backup to the dam ourselves?"

It was hard to judge expressions under the warpaint. "The alerts are pretty standard. It will be risky though, we could end up with the reinforcements before we've had a chance to thin out the ones stationed there."

"I know, but I'm getting worried about Appa. If he's noticed or just gets squirrelfroggy worrying about Aang..." A slight hesitation, he knew how much respect Katara usually gave this reasoning, but... "My instincts say we need to get those people out of the village as soon as we can."

Zuko picked up the horn. "Let's see how many are actually at the dam and you can make a final decision then."

Sokka caught himself gaping slightly. "**I** can make..."

A slight quirk of the lips. "It's your plan. I'm just along because I'm not a complete monster and really hate Zhao." And he was up and moving before the water tribesman could figure out any sort of response.

There were a dozen soldiers at the dam. "Nice," Sokka commented. "Enough to make Aang think it's worth sneaking up on them so the Yu Yan could sneak up on him sneaking up on them. Of course you could say that we snuck up on them, sneaking up on us, snea-"

"No, I** couldn't **say that, because I'm_** sane**_." The glare was harder to translate through the warpaint, but Sokka was fairly confident it included him being an idiot. "So, what's it going to be?"

"Let's get the whole gang here."

The prince blew two short notes and one long into the horn then dropped it as Sokka threw his boomerang at the nearest firebenders. Then they both sprinted for the kegs of blasting jelly that stood piled in the shallow water at the foot of the dam.

The dash there was the second most dangerous part. The soldiers had been watching the skies, but the alert signal drew their attention, and several fireblasts came towards the pair. But the guards had been up all night and the one with the clearest shot had just been hit by a boomerang, leaving Sokka and Zuko to dart through their ranks, rolling in the water to soak their clothes and skin and ending directly in front of the kegs, largely unscathed and ready for the _most_ dangerous part.

The water tribesman had been okay with the parts of his plan that depended on his own competence, and (strangely, even to himself) the parts that depended on trusting Zuko. With the prince's encouragement, he'd put aside his doubts about depending on Appa's ability to follow a plan. But now everything, including their lives, was depending on eleven firebenders not being stupid, and for those first seconds, Sokka was well and truly scared.

With reason, as one of the soldiers launched a blast of fire right at him. It took everything in the young warrior not to dodge, to disrupt it with a swing of his club and close his eyes for a moment as the remains scorched his wet tunic but did no real damage. Crap, they were going to die.

"Stop, you idiots!" Oh good. Apparently the Fire Nation had an Officer In Charge Of Not Being A Moron. "If you miss and hit the kegs it will kill us all!" Gee, really? Thanks for noticing. "There's only two of them, we can take them out easily with flame fists and spears." You have no idea who you're dealing with, do you? "And where are those cursed Yu Yan?" Not coming. One in particular, but not the time to think about that, time to fight.

A club was a little bit heavy for the style Sokka had learned on Kyoshi but the fight was pretty much perfect for it, and he made it work. This wasn't about charging in and attacking, he and Zuko stayed mostly stationary, backs half to the kegs of blasting jelly and half to each other, holding off the soldiers, stopping anyone from getting between them and the kegs, keeping everyone busy and distracted while the villagers got out. The firebenders weren't used to close quarters combat, and Sokka had a feeling they hadn't used those spears since they were trainees. It was ridiculously easy to use their strength against them, send them spinning back, or down into the water and break their spears, or in a couple of cases their arms, as he did it. Any time he had a moment, he would aim a slam of his club at the kegs behind them, as if their main goal was to free the blasting jelly and dilute it in the water, robbing the pile of enough explosive force to destroy the dam.

He was aware of Zuko beside him, attacking with the Water Tribe scimitar left handed while using the dagger in his right to cover Sokka's left side. He was holding his own, making anyone who closed with him regret it, but this was obviously not the prince's kind of fight. Several times the water tribesman sensed him tensing with the desire to spring after a firebender who was falling back, determined to finish a fight once it was started, forcing himself with some effort to conform his combat instincts to the strategy they had planned. "Steady," Sokka grit out between his teeth as he managed to club a soldier on the back of the head while pushing aside his fire fist with a well soaked elbow. He didn't want Zuko's lust for victory to ruin a holding action. They had taken at least five men out of the fight so far and... yes! Another ten soldiers were jogging up to the dam, having left the village with only a few guards.

He saw the prince's face break into a slightly scary grin, though Sokka wasn't sure if it was from the evidence that things were going according to plan or just joy at more 'friends' to play with. Appa should already be on his way to the village. Now they just had to hold.

Looking back, the water tribesman could never tell how long it took. With the addition of reinforcements, there was no time for anything but defending against the next strike and trying to think ahead to not leave himself open to the one after. He was still aware of Zuko at his side, found it easy, even with their different styles, to mesh their attacks and defenses to cover each others' weak moments. But he found himself growing physically exhausted and cursing the seductive luxury of a flying bison that had left him unused to long periods of exertion. Worse, he found his awareness focusing to only the fight, only the soldiers directly facing him at that moment. Somewhere in his mind he knew he should be taking in the big picture, making sure the firebenders weren't trying a new strategy or aware that they were being distracted. But he could only block, redirect, cover Zuko, make a hard strike trusting Zuko to cover his side, block again...

In the end he didn't even see or hear Appa coming and was as surprised as his opponents when several firebenders went flying from one of those classic tail slaps. "All right! Airbending POW from the bison!" Zuko laughed as he unleashed a flurry of swings and kicks at the soldiers who were still engaged with them. "Hey, I give the guy his props! Appa, we all good?" he added as he began scrambling up to the reins.

Appa gave an affirmative groan as the prince knocked the last of his opponents backwards and leaped to the saddle. Sokka grinned, almost lightheaded with relief. The plan had been crazy, based on vague impressions Katara had spent the last three weeks telling him he was wrong about and likely to fail spectacularly... and now it had only one final step to success.

"Yip yip!" Plan complete.

**A/N : Yeah action! Next chapter, more talking! Then more action! Then more talking! Then hopefully the two dorks will get around to the Zukka! Much like Sokka, I**_** have **_**a plan!**


	6. Drunken warrior time

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warning : check the title. If drinking that would be underage if ATLA took place in the modern USA offends, you are warned. **

"Yip yip!" Appa launched himself up over the dam and Sokka fell back on his broad furry head in a strange sort of relieved exhilaration. They'd done it. Not saved the village, per se, but the villagers would be safe, and if Zhao didn't destroy their homes in a fit of pique, maybe they'd even eventually be able to go back. He looked back towards the saddle and saw Zuko enthusiastically stripping off the borrowed tunic and using it to scrub the paint off his face.

"Aw, you made a great Water Tribe warrior, too!"

"Blue is not my color, I'm afraid. And this makeup itches, men aren't supposed to paint their faces."

"Bah, real men wear warpaint! And very occasionally, dresses." The prince raised his eyebrow at that, so Sokka quickly changed the subject. "Should I drop you where Appa was waiting before, or closer to your ship?"

"Actually..." Zuko hopped up to Appa's head as well, grabbing one of his horns as he stood and looked out before them. "When does your sister expect you back?"

"Well, I told her not to start worrying till after the noon deadline had passed, because I wasn't sure what my plan was going to be when I left... um, why?"

"Let's land over there by the shore." He pointed to an area of jumbled boulders and patches of sand visible in the moonlight.

"Okay..." Sokka considered asking why but figured it would become apparent. "Down, Appa!" Zuko grabbed the bag he had brought his weapons in and leaped down, flipping Appa another tea apple as he went. Then he wandered over to a good sized log that lay in the sand and held his hands over it for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"Just drying it out," the prince punched towards it and set it alight. "I hate smokey fires. Sit down." He settled against a large rock while gesturing to his side, and pulled a waterskin off of his belt to toss to Sokka.

"Okay..." he wasn't too thirsty but took a sip to be polite - and almost spit it out. "Wha? This isn't water, Zuko!"

"I would hope not, if I'd grabbed the Yu Yan's water supplies in the dark, I'd be very disappointed." He held his hand out for the skin and squirted a gulp into his mouth. "Ah! The rumors are true!" He smirked as handed it back. "Lu Ten always said the Yu Yan were great to camp with because they carried the best rum in the Fire Nation. Some sort of macho thing, they like to see how drunk they can get and still shoot a mosquito off your arm without hurting you."

Sokka took another drink, better prepared this time, and had to admit it was a whole other world from the 'rum' his tribe made from seaprunes. The burn was the same, but it actually tasted good before that. "So this is our victory celebration?"

"Partly." The prince leaned back and rather hopelessly tried to repair his topknot, before settling for just pushing it all back. "And an apology, of sorts. I... I should have spotted the apprentice Yu Yan. It shouldn't have come to that."

Sokka felt the need for another drink. He'd been planning, in the back of his mind, on breaking down once he dropped Zuko off and hoping to be coherent by the time he got back to Aang and Katara, but maybe this was a better plan. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I totally fell apart."

"No, you didn't." The water tribesman looked up to object, but the other teen spoke again first. "Trust me, I'd know.** I **totally fell apart my first time. You got sick and then got on with the rest of the plan."

"You.. you did?" Even remembering the regret Zuko had shown at having to kill the water bender in the cave, Sokka would never have imagines the prince actually freaking out, the way he had.

"It was shortly after I was banished, Uncle and I visited all the air temples first, and some of them we had to go a fair distance inland. We were heading to the Northern Air Temple, just the two of us because we didn't want to attract attention from Earth Kingdom soldiers. So instead we attracted attention from some bandits." Zuko reached over and took the rum back for a quick drink. "Uncle told me to let him handle it, but I was determined not to be weak, and I was already a... well a decent firebender. And they were just thugs, really. No bending and no formal weapons training. So I attacked the nearest one, and..." he gave a strangled sounding laugh. "See, it was the first time I'd actually used firebending against someone outside of training. And my training had included some fairly intense sparring, but it was always against experienced instructors - masters in firebending. Even if they didn't execute a block within the scoring of the sparring match, none of them were going to get hurt by a 13 year old."

"You'd never actually burned anyone." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, I know it sounds so ridiculous, intellectually I was completely aware of what firebending could do... even if it's not a real fight, soldiers get hurt in training accidents sometimes and, you know, hello," he gestured to the left side of his face. "But some part of me was still expecting the guy coming at me to get thrown backwards or maybe even knocked out, not..." The prince gave a shudder and took another drink before handing the skin back. "So I essentially collapsed right there, and Uncle had to take care of all the others with me out in the middle of it. Which, luckily, wasn't exactly a challenge for him."

Sokka smiled a little. "Mr Tea and Advice is a secret badass?"

A small smirk in response. "Only a secret to people who don't know his history. Before he retired, Uncle Iroh was better known as General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, possibly the greatest firebender of his generation. One of the few advantages of my banishment is that I've learned more in the three years that he's taken over my training than the eight before that. And that's even with him drilling me on the basics all the time."

"You said accidents happened during training, is that how-"

"No." The prince rubbed the edge of his face quietly and took another drink. "This wasn't an accident." His tone didn't encourage any follow up questions.

"...so you really freaked out worse than I did?"

Zuko snorted. "As if I would make up something that humiliating?"

"Hey, it's not humiliating, it's just... realizing you can't exactly pull punches with your type of bending." It did make Sokka feel better about his own response, though. "You seem to have plenty of other ways of dealing with people now."

"Yeah, we hired our current crew a little while after that, and I asked Uncle to try to find fighters who knew unarmed and different weapons styles if he could. I basically made any of them who could fight teach me and then spar me until I could beat them at their own style. In retrospect, the world's probably better off without that particular bandit, but I knew I'd be running into a lot of people who I didn't get along with but didn't necessarily deserve to die." He leaned back against his rock and commented, "I think learning other combat styles actually helped my firebending, too. It's hard to explain, but it broke me out of the fixed forms a little and- Hey!"

Sokka was standing and yelling at the same time as Appa suddenly lumbered to his feet and sprang into the air, showering both teens with sand in the process. "Appa, where are you going? Hey, you're my ride!" He shook his fist as the bison disappeared into the night sky.

"He's definitely not getting the last tea apple."

The water tribesman nodded in agreement. "Hope everything's okay with Aang. I told Katara not to call Appa back with that stupid whistle unless it was an emergency, but either of them listening to me is fifty-fifty at best..." He briefly considered making his own way back to check on them but figured he wouldn't be able to walk there in time to do any good anyway. "Well, he's got like a two ton brain, he'll remember to come back for me. Gimme the rum."

"Bossy." But he handed it over.

"You should see my sister. So what do you want to talk about besides our first times... heh." He found himself giggling a little, and blamed the rum.

"What's so funny?"

"Just the way I said it, sounds like we were talking about... um, something else."

"Heh. Well Lun Ten did always say that in the army you were a boy until you killed a man or bedded a woman - and the genders could be flexible." He smirked a little as Sokka choked at the last part.

"That's... that's just wrong!"

The smirk got wider. "Which one?"

"I can't choose!"

"Well, in the Fire Nation women do serve in the military, so females aren't assumed to be non-combatants..."

"Okay, fine but... I mean..." Sokka felt his face heating.

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him. "Two men are a major taboo in the Water Tribe, then?"

Now his face was probably outshining the fire. "Um, not completely, but it's only sort of acceptable between older men, after they've had kids... you know, if they've lost their wives or have to be away for a long time. Being with a guy first would be... I dunno, not even sort of acceptable, I guess."

The prince thought a moment. "Because it would mean that the guys aren't looking for wives and having babies?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, I suppose. The Southern Tribe is really small, you know. There's a couple of other little villages like ours that aren't safe to get to except in the summer. Last I heard I was one of four or five husband prospects for our age group..."

"I suppose that makes sense. It's not as much of an issue in the Fire Nation because so many of the marriages are arranged. Especially among the nobility. So it can't hurt your marriage prospects because no one cares if you're attracted to your spouse to begin with."

The water tribesman shook his head. "That's lame. It's one thing to feel obligated to marry in general, but someone else picking who it's to? No way."

Zuko shrugged. "It's just another obligation of birth, the way I see it. As a prince I had a lot of advantages, but Uncle always taught me that being royalty is primary a position of responsibility, with enough power to carry your responsibilities out."

"Sounds like a pretty good way of looking at it. That why the two of you try to help out with things?"

"I suppose... and maybe because we can. Uncle isn't even an_ incomplete _monster, you know."

"You're gonna hold that against me forever, aren't you."

"A while longer."

Sokka pouted slightly as he got up to add more driftwood to the fire. "So who is Lu Ten? A friend from your palace days?"

The smile faded away, but instead of the usual scowl it was replaced by a sort of contemplative sadness. "He was my cousin. I don't know if you could call us friends, he was ten years older than me, and just about everything I wanted to be... He put up with me following him around like a little rhinopuppy, and told me stories about the army, so that's probably as close to friendship as we could have then." The prince took another drink. "He died when I was nine. Maybe we would be able to talk as closer to equals now if he was still alive. Well... a lot would probably be different if he was still alive."

"Like what?" He sat down again, much closer to the prince than before, but by the time he gave it any thought it would be awkward to get back up or scoot away. And Zuko didn't seem to mind.

"Well, there's a very good chance my uncle would be Fire Lord. Or... maybe even still my grandfather, but that goes into the really complicated part."

"I may need another drink for this."

Zuko handed him the rum. "It won't help it make sense, but it probably can't make less sense... Lu Ten was Uncle's only child. His mother died when he was very young, and Uncle chose not to remarry. Lu Ten joined the army and would probably have been doing very well even if he weren't the son of the Dragon of the West. After he rose to Captain, he asked to serve in the campaign against Ba Sing Se that Uncle was directing." He looked into the fire for a long moment. "He died in a battle trying to take the inner wall."

"Iroh lost his son under his own command?" Suddenly, Sokka felt a little less bitter about his father's refusal to bring him with the warriors when they left the village. He knew how Hakoda grieved and second guessed himself whenever he lost a man in an engagement he had planned, how much worse would it be to go through that with your own child? Maybe it was better that he had come into his own as a warrior independently, following his own plans.

Zuko took a long drink. "It shattered him. He abandoned the siege entirely, put his battalions into the command of other generals and sent word that he would return to the palace in his own time." His voice turned from sad to bitter. "The same day that message was received, my father requested an audience as a family with Fire Lord Azulon."

"I'm... going to end up saying something really rude about your father soon, aren't I? Are you drunk enough not to set me on fire?"

"Probably. Grandfather got tired of the family aspect pretty soon and dismissed everyone but Father, but Azula stayed to eavesdrop and dragged me along with her. Father said... He asked the Fire Lord to remove Iroh's birthright and designate him as heir. Because Uncle didn't have anyone to follow him anymore and Father had two children. And Uncle was away and he was there."

"Did he mention being a cold blooded, heartless jerk as another qualification, or had he already established that as a given?" Zuko snorted slightly, but Sokka was filling with drunken righteous indignation. "I mean, how did that go over well?_ 'Hey dad, you just lost your oldest grandchild, so I was thinking you'd like to twist the knife on your son while we're at it.'_ And your grandpop goes _'Great idea, nothing says fatherly love like punishing your son for a tragic loss, I'll do that_-"

"It **didn't** go over well. Grandfather got angry. Like, really angry. Pissed off Fire Lord sending flames into the ceiling and telling Father that his suffering had barely begun, angry."

"Okay, that makes more sense, except that I already know the ending so it doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, well, it didn't make any sense to me and I was **there**. I got scared at the thundering rage and ran off, but Azula stayed to find out more. Then later she came into my room and started telling me..." The prince flinched noticeably, and took a deep breath. "Azula always lies. She just... she always lies. I mean, she was always coming up with things to try to frighten me or upset me, or get my hopes up so I'd be more upset later when I found out the truth. She only told the truth when she knew I'd take it as a lie and still be deceived that way. Azula **always **lies..."

Sokka was torn between the amount of stress this was obviously putting on Zuko and his own unquenchable curiosity. He compromised by handing the drink back over and leaning in closer to put his arm around the other boy. He was guardedly pleased at both not being set on fire and the fact that the gesture seemed to shake Zuko out of his memories a little. "So what was she lying about that time?"

"It was pretty crazy." He accepted the drink and while tensing slightly, didn't push Sokka away. "She claimed that Grandfather was going to punish our dad by... that since he hadn't had any sympathy for Uncle losing Lu Ten that he should experience the same thing. That Father was going to kill me to get back into the Fire Lord's good graces." He glanced over and gave a small strangled laugh at the water tribesman's face. "I knew she was lying, it would be a crazy thing for Grandfather to ask for after he'd just lost part of his bloodline, and I told myself Father wouldn't do something like that anyway, but Azula can make the most insane things sound so **plausible**."

"Well, you're alive, so..."

"Yeah... but it's... my mom came in while Azula was still trying to get me to believe it and dragged her out. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was the middle of the night and my mom was there. She said some stuff about loving me and protecting me and then she left again. I was so confused when I woke that morning, I wasn't even sure at first if it had been real or a dream. I went looking for her, and... she was gone. No one knew where she was, my father wouldn't even look at me when I asked. Grandfather had died during the night and the Fire Sages said his final wish was for Father to succeed him as Fire Lord."

Sokka gaped. "So you still don't know... I mean, surely your dad must have said **something** eventually?"

A quick head shake. "There was never a funeral or memorial for her. But she was also never formally disavowed, their marriage remains official and she was announced as part of my bloodline when I was confirmed as Crown Prince. It was like I was supposed to pretend that she was still there but just not around right that moment and keep pretending it for the rest of my life. The only person I could ever even talk about her to was Uncle. Anyone else would just change the subject or walk away."

"I can't imagine... My- I lost my mom when I was seven. She was killed in a Fire Nation raid." He felt the other teen stiffen under his arm and went on quickly, not wanting this to be about the war and their opposition. "And it... It was hard, it's probably the worst thing that happened in my life, but we grieved her. We buried her and cried together as a family and Katara still wears her necklace. I can't imagine losing her and just... not knowing. Not knowing and not having it acknowledged."

"I'm sorry you lost your mom. It's... this whole war is just stupid anyway." He got up and began angrily throwing more wood on the fire. "Why does the Fire Nation even want the poles? It's not like we could ever live there! The sun doesn't rise for months at a time! And you'd melt the ice and drown trying to train in firebending!" The prince flung himself back down beside Sokka and simmered.

Sokka was inclined to pout a little himself, but shook it off. "Man, listen to us, this is way too depressing!" He punched Zuko in the shoulder, and was pleased to actually hit it in spite of things getting slightly blurry. "I am not gonna be a mopey drunk! We need to talk about something both manly and entertaining, now!"

"Heh, okay, um..." A slight smirk reemerged from the simmer. "What's the stupidest way you ever hurt yourself?"

"What, me, stupid hurting self? What would make you think... well... Okay, so this one time I was fishing..."

**lineline**

"...And since my knife was too big, I thought I could dig the fishhook out using the other fishhook, right?" He looked with annoyance at the hysterically giggling boy beside him. "What, it made sense at the time! And stop hogging the rum! So then **both** fishhooks were caught and I think they were actually hooked into each other inside my thumb and when I got back to the hut, Gran Gran just yanked them both out, and I still have this scar."

"Oh my-" Zuko gave up speaking for a moment in favor of more giggles as Sokka yanked away the second skin of rum they had started into. Getting himself together he leaned back. "Okay, sadly, I think I have that beat. Though in my defense I was younger at the time."

"Ooh, ooh, spill!"

The prince held up an admonishing, if not terribly steady, finger. "First, you have to promise you won't tell the Avatar this."

"Huh, what does this have to do with Aang?" But he just got a mild glare and spread his hands. "Okay, fine, I won't tell him, now let's hear it!"

"So, when I was six, I decided that I wanted to be an airbender instead of a firebender." Sokka almost choked on his mouthful of rum, leading to Zuko hitting him on the back rather harder than needed, and then leaving his arm there to lean into the younger teen. "I was** six**, okay? And I was learning about Avatar Roku, and there was this painting of him learning airbending with all the monks flying on those little glider things. And I was all 'oh man, airbenders got to **fly**?' And I thought that was completely unfair because fire was supposed to be the most powerful element ever, but firebenders couldn't fly, and flying seemed like the best thing bending could ever possibly lead to."

"Flying is pretty cool. I mean, bending in general is overrated, but if I was gonna be a bender I'd want to get flying out of it too."

"Exactly! So I spent a week trying to figure out how to airbend, but it wasn't working. And then I remembered this test they do with kids if they are pretty sure they're firebenders but they aren't able to, I guess activate it. They surround them with flames so it feels like they have to control them or be burned and the panic opens them up to their bending."

"Isn't that a little dangerous?"

"Eh, it's done by several masters, it's completely under control... and even if it is dangerous, it's less dangerous than having an unrealized firebender. But I figured if it would work for firebending..." He paused a moment while Sokka, having realized where this was probably going, started laughing in anticipation. "So I went out on the balcony of my mother's study and climbed from there onto the roof and from there to one of the towers..."

"Heh, sounds like you were a little monkeyspider at six."

Zuko gave a slightly silly smile. "It was useful for getting into parts of the palace I wasn't supposed to be. So I took a running jump towards the turtleduck pond in the garden, and started trying to airbend..."

The laughter was back in earnest. "Oh man, you could have totally killed yourself! How bad were you hurt?"

"Could have been a lot worse. I broke my ankle and wrist, and bruised a few ribs up, but the mud in the pond helped. The **worst** part actually was trying to explain to my mom why I was jumping off of towers. I didn't want to admit the real reason, but she didn't believe my excuses, and she kept asking because she was afraid Azula had pushed me or something." He snickered at the memory. "When I finally told her the truth, she made me prepare a ten minute presentation on _The Importance of My Firebending Heritage _and repeat it at all her afternoon teas for a week."

Sokka managed to drag his mind away from the image of Zuko wanting to be an airbender (did he really have to not tell Aang?) to further evidence of the Fire Nation royal family being scary. "Wait, wait... you were only six and your sister was already crazy enough your mom suspected her of pushing you off buildings?"

"Azula was **born** crazy. Look, I'm just saying..." Zuko waved his hands vaguely in an effort to explain The Horror That Is Azula. "If you ever run into a fifteen year old girl, dark hair, family resemblance from this side," he exaggeratedly turned the scarred side of his face away, "royal topknot holder and really creepy smile... just say to yourself_ 'Zuko's the __**sane**__ one' _and run the other way as fast as you can."

The water tribesman had decided that rum made him very giggly. "You're the sane one, huh?"

"On, you know, the sliding scale of sanity the royal family is judged on, yeah. There's, like, up here," he held a shaky hand in the air, "Uncle Iroh with his tea and Pai Sho eccentricity... And then a little further down there's me being angry and kinda obsessed. And then there's the Fire Lord who thinks near fatal burns are an excellent teaching tool, and** way **down here is Azula."

"Heh, way down there, huh... Hang on, what do you mean a teaching too-"

Zuko broke in a little too loudly, even for as loud as the rum had made him. "So what is the rest of** your **family like?"

"Nuh uh, what was that about your father and 'near fatal burns'?" Sokka was trying to force some sort of alertness through the alcohol haze. Was Zuko saying what he thought he was? He'd said his scar hadn't been from an accident...

"It was nothing, just forget it, I was asking about your family."

"Um, no, I'm pretty forgetful, but I don't think I'm going to forget that. And just so you know I'm very persistent and can be kinda annoying, so you might as well just tell me now."

"You, annoying? **You**? Really?"

"And you're not gonna distract me by insulting me either." Sokka forced a firm look on his face. "You can't just say something like that then not tell me what you meant!"

The prince flung himself to the side so he was lying on his back in the sand. "Why do you need to know, Water Tribe? You don't have any illusions about the Fire Lord that need broken, and I don't need your pity."

"Hey, I have a name, you know! If you think I'm gonna put up with your attitude, you've got another think coming and, crap I said I wasn't going to be distracted by insults..." Sokka tried an angry glare for a few minutes, but it seemed Zuko was immune to his own weapon. Finally he lay back as well, looking up at the stars. Not so many left, he saw, the sky was brightening a little. "I'm just... confused. If you meant what it sounded like, if your father did that to you as some sort of lesson, then I... I don't understand how you can be so determined to go back. Why you want his respect. I mean, how do you even think he can give you back your honor? We're talking about a guy who tried to steal the throne from his grieving brother and thought there was anything a 13 year old kid could do that deserved a permanent scar and banishment. What does he know about honor?"

The prince was silent for a few minutes and Sokka wondered if he'd fallen asleep. It was one of the few logical explanations for the water tribesman's continued state of not being on fire. When he finally spoke, it was in a tone similar to the first time Sokka had tried to ask about his scar. Not angry, really, just warning. Trying to stop the younger teen from doing something stupid.

"You can't talk that way, Sokka. Not to me, I mean. Uncle can't talk that way and not only is he the only person I have left, he's the Fire Lord's big brother, so he's got more standing to criticize him than anyone. But you can't- He's my father, and he's the Fire Lord, and I'm loyal as a son and as a subject, and even if he never wants me back, I can't change that about myself. I don't want to."

"And the thing is..." Zuko's voice had gotten quiet, almost shy. "I kinda enjoy not being angry at you. I mean... I can stand you. There aren't a lot of people I can stand being around for very long, and even though you're an idiot and have no sense of propriety and make up bizarre rules for my interactions with your sister who I don't even like, I **can** stand being around you, and I don't want to be mad at you, so you need to not say stuff like that. Okay?"

Part of Sokka wondered if it was the rum or if the prince would have been this incredibly awkward about expressing friendship in any case. Part was observing that when he wasn't yelling, Zuko had kind of a nice voice. A tiny part wondered how unworkable the idea of being friends with the guy trying to kidnap his other friend would be once he sobered up. But most of him just listened and answered. "I'm sorry. I guess you'll have to accept me hating the Fire Lord, you know, on principle... Water Tribe and all. But family loyalty is important to my people too, and I can't say I've ever been put in a position like yours to say what I'd do." He turned his head, with more effort than it seemed that should really take, and looked for a moment at the scarred profile facing him. "Part of the reason I was pushing is... well, I can stand to be around you too, and it seemed like something like that must really hurt, and I thought if I understood, maybe I could help. I guess that didn't work."

A faint smile tugged at Zuko's lips. "Well, you can't expect all your plans to work out... I might have to stop calling you an idiot if they did." Sokka wanted to growl or glare, but either seemed more effort than it was worth just then. "I can't believe I was up all night... Hope Uncle doesn't start checking inns for me... I'm gonna close my eyes a little then start heading back..."

Closing his eyes a little did sound like a pretty excellent idea. Maybe drift off for for a half hour and let some of the rum work out of his system before he started heading back to Aang and Katara. They wouldn't start missing him till noon. Nice little nap comfortably close to his new _guy-who-could-stand-being-around-him_. Good plan.

**A/N : The hardest thing about the**_** Zuko and Sokka talking **_**chapters is not making them little novels. I have so many little interactions between them bubbling up in my mind, and if I wrote them all out they'd be there till the following night. Just keep reminding myself it won't be the last Zukka fic I write and they can talk about the other stuff later...**


	7. Interlude the second

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

Katara was a little cranky. First Sokka had tried to get her to leave Aang when the young monk was helpless as his spirit traveled away from his body. Then he had run off with Appa claiming he would do something about it himself, and even though he annoyed her, she was still cranky that her big brother was trying to get himself killed. Not to mention that she'd had to sit alone in that creepy cave, which Aang said contained enough spiritual energy to allow him better access to Roku but she just thought was annoyingly damp.

Then when Aang had come out of his trance, he had insisted on summoning Appa so that they could go get some gift that a spirit had found for him but couldn't bring all the way to the cave for whatever spirit reason, which Katara hoped would at least stop Sokka from trying to save that village on his own, but he didn't come with the bison, so he'd probably already killed himself. Though Appa seemed too cheerful for that. Then they'd flown to what would be better described as a big rock than an island where Aang found his 'gift' sitting just above the tide line with seaweed tangled in it. And it turned out to be some Fire Nation topknot decoration, which Aang thought might have been Roku's. Well, that was nice and all but it was past sunrise by then and they still needed to find out what her stupid brother had gotten himself into.

Luckily Appa seemed eager to take them to where he had left Sokka and an hour or so before noon they approached the Earth Kingdom shore again, only for the bison to circle and land directly on the beach. Katara slid down from the saddle and spotted a burned out campfire and, surprisingly, two figured sprawled out beside it asleep. One was wearing a blue tunic and she stalked up to find out what was going on.

When she got up to them, they both started to stir. Without looking up, Sokka whispered to the other figure, a pale teen dressed in black, she could now see, "Is it the Fire Nation? Do you think they'll kill me?"

The pale boy looked up, wincing in pain at the sunlight and Katara gasped at the sight a familiar scar. What in the name of all the spirits...

"No, it's your sister. See if you can get her to kill me." Zuko whispered back.

"What is going on here?" She yelled, causing both boys to curl up slightly and cover their ears. "Are you..." she turned Sokka's face towards her noting the unusual paleness and bloodshot eyes. "Are you two _hung over_?"

"Zuko, are we hung over?"

"We had a skin of Yu Yan rum each and didn't eat or drink anything before passing out. We may need to invent a more serious term to describe this than just hung over."

"Like... dead over... or hung dead?"

"Oh good, Zuko's here!" Aang floated over cheerfully, again causing both boys to try to hide. "I have something for you!"

"Will it kill me?" The prince's voice was slightly hopeful.

Sokka snorted softly. "You had a better shot with my sister, I think we're gonna have to live."

Katara was getting cranky again. "I'm sorry, I thought you were saving a village, exactly what part of getting drunk on the beach with the guy trying to kill us was meant to accomplish that?"

"I_ already _saved the village, with my brilliant plan and... you know weapon skills and boomerang and good looks and..."

"Ehem."

"And Zuko helped too, but then Zuko felt bad because I had my first time when we were in the woods and he thought it was rougher than it should have been, so he stole some rum to apologize and wow this is coming out wrong..."

The firebender stole a quick look up at Katara's darkening face. "On the bright side, she might kill me now."

"Oooookay, maybe we should get Zuko back to his ship," Aang said quickly. "And then we'll get moving again and never ever talk about this..."

"I didn't mean_ that _kind of first time, it's a warrior thing! Zuko, tell them!"

A very, very small smirk started to cross the prince's pained face.

"**Tell** them!"

He whistled slightly.

"If I could move without puking I would totally cut off that ponytail..."


	8. Captives

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

Having Zuko charge into their camp wasn't that surprising. It was one of those things that happened, like Aang being randomly distracted or them getting captured. It was surprising that Sokka's first thought was "Hey cool, Zuko! I gotta tell him about the balloon I helped design!" Or maybe that was a little disturbing. The fact that Zuko was shooting flames behind him instead of in front of him and vaulting over Appa with no apparent interest in stopping was definitely surprising. And the pillars of earth that started erupting from the ground were very surprising, to the extent that one caught Aang off guard and smashed him against a tree.

It was at that exact moment that the day went truly wrong, because neither Katara nor Appa was going to shrug that off as an understandable mistake and apologize to the nice earthbending soldiers for getting in their way. Well, Sokka might not have either, but he wasn't the one who waterwhipped the Sergeant in the face or tailslapped two others. He was busy checking Aang and glancing over with concern at where Zuko had been pinned by a pile of rubble.

Not, unfortunately, that he would have done a lot of good if he had joined the fray with Boomerang. The prince had apparently been playing tag with a total of six earthbenders when he joined them, and with Aang down for the count their small group was quickly overwhelmed.

As Appa was being encased in rock up to his neck for safekeeping and the rest of them bound, Sokka tried for diplomacy. "Listen you guys, this is all a big misunderstanding! You just attacked **The Avatar**, but I know you didn't mean to, so how about we all say sorry and call it a day, huh?" He received a cuff to the head and slightly tighter ropes as a counteroffer.

"It doesn't matter who you claim to be, you attack Earth Kingdom soldiers in the course of their duties, you pay the penalties. Especially some water witch, the Major will want to have a word with her, I'm sure." The man's tone scared Sokka but before he could say anything further he was thrown in a pile with the others and two of the earthbenders moved together to lift the ground they were on and propel it through the forest. By giving himself a bit of a neck ache, he could see that two others were still with them, the remaining pair must be guarding Appa.

He turned the other way and realized he was facing Zuko, who was visibly pushing aside the disorientation from his close call with being buried alive, and assessing the situation as well. Sokka was glad. Zuko might be chained up, palms pressed together to keep him from producing flames, but he was still an ally. Well, probably. Lately. Maybe. "Hey Zu-"

A sharp shake of the head cut off his words. The prince glanced meaningfully at the nearest earthbender, then schooled his face to the arrogant scowl normally used for dealing with peasantry in his personal space and turned slightly away. Okay, yeah, noticeably collaborating with the local representative of the Fire Nation might not be supportive of his "big misunderstanding" argument. Fair point.

**lineline**

When they were brought into an earthbender camp and allowed to stand up again, Sokka made another try for diplomacy. "Look, I need to talk to who's in charge here, you guys are making a big mistake but I think we can clear this up now."

"I'll clear them up, all right, they knocked Aang out!"

"Katara, not helping..."

Another soldier walked up, an officer from the way the others responded. "I thought you boys were on patrol for Fire Nation, not feisty Water Tribe toys..."

"Even feistier than she looks, Major, she's a waterbender. They attacked us when we were in pursuit of a firebender, they claim the tattooed one is the Avatar and they had a giant creature that attacked us, too - Ling and Gao are guarding it now." As the sergeant gave his report, Sokka noticed out of the corner of his eye that Zuko had adopted a defeated posture quite unlike himself. But his attention was quickly distracted when he saw the major grab his sister by her braid.

"Attacked my men? That's simply not acceptable, especially from some foreign tart... I think you're going to have to make it up to them." The whistles and coarse laughs that the soldiers responded with filled Sokka with a cold dread. No, these were Earth Kingdom soldiers, allies, Suki and crazy King Bumi's people, the _good_ guys...

His anger when the earthbender dragged Katara's face to his for a rough kiss was partly at his own childish illusions. "Let her go, you bastard!"

He got a punch from the guard nearest him for his troubles, though the major broke away to wipe his bleeding lip a moment later. "Feisty, indeed," he half growled, half laughed. "Lee, Tsu, I'll inspect the rest of the prisoners later, lock them up." He flung Katara from him, and moved his arms in a bending gesture, turning the ground around her feet to quicksand. She tried desperately to stay standing without her arms for balance, and several of the men started to move in closer to her, grinning. All Sokka could think of was a pack of polar wolves moving in on a wounded tigerseal.

He had never felt so helpless. "She's a friend of the Avatar, you idiots, and when he wakes up, he's gonna Glow It Up all over your asses!" But this was apparently just amusing and Spirits, this was really going to happen and he couldn't break free and...

And something in Zuko's stance changed and when he spoke up for the first time, he wasn't a captured soldier trying to stay out of the way, but a prince of the Fire Nation. "I see Dirt Kingdom honor is about what I'd heard." His voice was filled with contempt, but almost amused, and the major turned to look and saw something in the firebender's posture that made him walk over, dragging Katara by the arm.

"Sergeant," he said in a quiet, dangerous voice, as he stared into the fiery eyes, "what exactly is this and why wasn't it brought to my attention?"

"Er, Fire Nation soldier, sir, he's a firebender so we restrained him properly for that, um... you said you'd inspect the other prisoners later so..."

"_Fire Nation soldier, sir, he's a firebender_," the major said in a dripping parody of the man's voice, then started to laugh. "You must be the stupidest soldier in the Earth Kingdom. You see a lot of Fire Nation teenagers in officer's armor with no insignia?" He dropped Katara's arm to grab Zuko by the chin and turn his face slightly as if inspecting him, and Sokka relaxed just as shade. "Not to mention golden eyes and a profile that belongs on a royal portrait? You want to tell these idiots who you are, firebender?"

"Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation." He was meeting the major's eyes and looking completely unimpressed with the situation, but Sokka could see the tension in the way he held himself and some of his fear returned.

The major began laughing again, still holding the prince's chin. "And he actually thinks he should be proud of it!" Still laughing, he backhanded the teen to the ground and stomped to earthbend rocks partially around him, holding him there. "Sarge, get the other three to a secure cell and get back here. We have letters to send and royalty to entertain!"

Sokka wanted to ask the men pushing him what was going on, to look back as they left, but he remembered Zuko's silent warning and focused his attention on Katara. His concern couldn't help the prince and it could hurt Aang and his sister. But he felt like a coward turning away.

**lineline**

Sokka decided that their bindings represented a hierarchy of how dangerous they were considered and as usual he was at the bottom. Aang was chained spread eagle to the wall in a position where he would be able to stand once he was conscious, but was going to have very sore arms by then. Katara was chained as well, but in a way that she could sit or stand. Sokka was unbound, free to move around their small cell and tend to the other two. It was insulting, but complaining would probably get him waterwhipped by Katara, so he focused on trying to wake Aang and take the weight off his wrists.

"Sokka? Wassup?" The watertribesman was relieved. Aang didn't weigh much, but it still got tiring after a while.

"Hey, do you think you can stand, you're chained up... We got arrested by earthbenders." He decided not to tell the monk what had almost happened, he didn't even know if Aang would understand, and Katara didn't need to be reminded.

"Wha? Why would they arrest us, we're on their side."

"Yeah, well, Katara and Appa kinda took it personally when you got hit by a rock and now we have to convince them that it wasn't a political statement..." Sokka sighed with relief as the monk finally got his feet under him and started taking some of his own weight.

"Well, I should be able to convince them, I'm the Avatar, I'm very convincing... What about Zuko, is he here too? I want to ask him if what he found out from the crown."

"Um, Aang," Katara spoke up for the first time, and her brother was glad. She had seemed pretty freaked out. "I don't think worrying about the Fire Prince is a good way to show them we're on the same side as the Earth Kingdom."

Sokka lowered his voice as he got Aang some water. "Yeah, Zuko kinda warned me away from talking to him while we were transported. He is here too, but I don't know exactly what's happening, they know who he is and..."

"And that isn't our concern." His sister interrupted. "He's hurt us often enough, and others, and if the Earth Kingdom is going to dish out some punishment, this whole thing will have an upside."

"I... yeah, I guess you're right," the monk said reluctantly, "Roku just seemed to think him meditating on the crown would somehow be a good thing for us..."

"Well, even Roku can be wrong about things," Katara said with some sympathy. "He probably doesn't realize just how much the Fire Nation has changed for the worse since his time, who would want to admit that your own people are all monsters now?"

"Hey!" Sokka looked at his sister in shock. Zuko wasn't a monster, and they'd both just seen that Earth Kingdom men could be just as bad as any Fire Nation raiders, and she was going to act like the guy who stepped up an pretty much saved her wasn't even a person? He was tempted to argue with her, but she had been through a lot today. He settled down to sulk and wait for something to happen. Prison was boring.

**lineline**

He jumped up as the door opened but before he could take a fighting stance the stone floor of the cell lapped up around his feet. The major entered, and the water tribesman froze in terror for a moment, only breathing again when he walked past Katara without a glance to address Aang.

"Good, you're awake. Your companions claim that you are the returned avatar-child and that you are a friend to the Earth Kingdom. Can you back up this claim?"

The young monk grinned cheerfully. "I'm definitely the Avatar, and as such, I'm a friend to** all **the nations!" He frowned slightly at Katara's meaningful _ehem_. "Well, I guess except the Fire Nation right now because they're throwing things out of balance so badly. Um, how did you want me to back it up? I could airbend for you but I'm all chained up, and I have a Sky Bison, hey, where is Appa?"

"The beast is being guarded, but I'm fairly willing to believe you are the Avatar - you match the Fire Nation's wanted posters well, and they tend to know who they're looking for. I'm more interested in substantiating your claim of alliance with the Earth Kingdom." He looked at the boy with great distrust. "Where I come from, we remember that the Avatar hasn't always been a savior, but in the past has taken it upon itself to 'balance' great heroes right out of the world when they challenged it's dominance. Who can vouch for your alliance with this kingdom?"

Aang seemed temporarily thrown by the soldier's implications, but thought quickly. "Well, King Bumi of Omashu is a really good friend and wants me to defeat the Fire Lord, and the Kyoshi Warriors will vouch for us," he didn't seem to notice an angry tension at that suggestion, "and there's Haru's people who we helped break out of that prison so they could start a resistance against the Fire Nation, and, um..."

"And doesn't the fact that he **has** a Fire Nation wanted poster speak in his favor, here?" Sokka broke in impatiently.

The major looked skeptically at him. "I require more evidence than the old 'enemy of my enemy' gambit to forgive assault on my men. They have wanted posters for pirates, a ghost and two Water Tribe warriors as well."

All rational thought left his head. "A wanted poster for two water Tribe warriors! _**Really? **_Do you have one, can I see it?" His own Fire Nation wanted poster? Well, his and Zuko's? This was _AWESOME_!

"Sokka! Focus!" His sister hissed, as the major was well and truly thrown off of following the conversation.

"Ehem, well, I'll send a message to Omashu and check into the prison break and if your information pans out, you'll be released - assuming you make no more trouble until then. I don't suggest you make an enemy of me, the concessions I plan to get as ransom for that fire scum are going to be worth some political capital, and I very much doubt that crazy old coot in Omashu even remembers you if it's been longer than a week." He turned and stalked out of the cell, seeming to only remember at the last moment to release Sokka's feet.

"Arrogant jerk... we've got_ way _scarier enemies than him..." The water tribesman consoled himself with thoughts of his wanted poster. He would have to keep an eye out for a Fire Nation notice board before they left for the North Pole. He wondered if Zuko got notices from his former nation and what he thought of the poster if he'd seen one. But that thought just led to worrying about Zuko. Where was he being kept? How was he? If they wanted ransom for him they wouldn't kill him, surely, but how badly could they hurt him and still expect terms?

He knew he couldn't bring up his worries without starting a fight with Katara, but the fact of the matter, as weird and awkward and unworkable as it might be, was that Zuko was his friend. He couldn't count the number of times since their last meeting that Sokka had wished the other teen was around to talk to, or show something interesting, or spar, or roughhouse, or snuggle, or okay maybe not snuggle per se, just sit very close and conserve body heat in an entirely manly way and if Zuko wanted to admit that his father was a total bastard who didn't deserve his loyalty then Sokka wouldn't mind letting him cry on his shoulder and holding him close, again in a completely manly and warrior like fashion, and okay Sokka, let's just end this train of thought right here while some dignity remains, huh? So yeah, friends, worried about him, can't talk about it with Katara, life sucks.

He was shaken out of his thoughts as the cell door opened again and he was once more trapped by the floor. "Hey Water Tribe, got another roommate for you to take care of. Heh, well, at least don't kill it, or you'll be in trouble with the major." Two men dragged something through the doorway and flung a mostly limp body to the floor. Sokka felt all the blood drain from his face and he tried to move, forgetting his stuck feet and barely catching himself on the wall before he could break his ankles.

"Don't worry, kid," one of the guards laughed. "He's in no shape to hurt you. Just yell if you think he's trying to kill himself, suicide watches are too boring..." The floor released him as the door closed and he collapsed to his knees before scuttling over to to the huddled shape, too horror-stricken to start to be angry yet.

"Oh Spirits, Zuko..."

**A/N : Yes, the Major is from the anti-Kyoshi village in Avatar Day. Celebrity isn't always good for you.**

**A/N2 : I liked the scene in The Desert where there's a notice board with wanted posters for both Zuko and the Blue Spirit. I enjoy imagining an avatar-verse smushed up between the standard one, this fic and the various "Zuko/Lee is a freedom fighter with Jet after the fall of Ba Sing Se" ones, where Fire Nation notice boards are over half filled with wanted posters for Zuko's various incarnations and the discriminating bounty hunter has to decide who to turn him in as...**

**A/N3 : This chapter was hard to write for some reason, it didn't flow out of my brain like most do. Hopefully the next couple will be back on track.**


	9. Hurt and comfort

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warning : as could be guessed from the ending of the last chapter, there will be allusions to and the aftermath of torture. **

"Oh Spirits, Zuko..."

Sokka didn't know where to look first, what to do. The prince's arms were still bound behind his back, and his armor and shirt had been cut off, none too precisely by the cuts on his shoulders. Other cuts and welts on his upper back, bruises everywhere, and curse it Sokka felt ridiculously guilty for the jokes about ponytail related vengeance. The bastards had cut off his topknot, and the warrior felt a serious dip in his stomach when he realized some skin had come with it.

"Zuko, are you..." _stupid question, __**no**__ he's not all right! _"What can I..."

"Hey," the firebender gave a rough cough. "Did they give us any water?"

"Right, yes, um..." He scurried to the bucket bolted to the cell door and filled the small dipper, coming back slightly slower to not spill it everywhere. "Here, take a drink." Giving up on finding an uninjured spot to support him by, Sokka settled for putting his arm all the way around the prince and spreading out the pressure as he lifted him into a sitting position.

"Thanks, breathed way too much dust out there..." He didn't seem to be able to figure out what to do with his legs while sitting and glancing down Sokka realized they'd taken his boots off as well. But why would they...

"Black Snow, what did they do to your feet?" He went back to the bucket, unwrapping his armbands as he went, and soaked them in the water before returning with another dipperful. He noticed that Katara and Aang were whispering to each other and was just as glad that neither had tried to say anything. He didn't have room in his brain for trying to reconcile Zuko-his-friend-who-was-hurt and Prince-Zuko-who-was-their-enemy right now.

"Not as much as they think they did, brands don't work so well on firebenders... Sokka, you can't be bandaging me, you need to-"

"Just shut up, okay?" He heard his own voice rising, but didn't care. "Don't tell me how I can and can't take care of you, these have to be washed and covered so you aren't dragging dirt into them every time you shift your legs. Just... just shut up about what I need to do, and why the fuck would they do this?"

"Precautionary measure - can't run, can't do any firebending kicks. Calm down, okay, it's not as bad as it looks."

"Not as bad as it- It** looks **like they beat you to a pulp, scalped you and tried to cripple you, exactly what part of it isn't that bad?" If Sokka was the Avatar, he was pretty sure he would have glowing eyes by now, but he had to settle for a red face and his voice hitting notes unknown since puberty.

Zuko's hands weren't free to grab Sokka's arms, so he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the other boy's, holding him steady with his eyes. "**Sokka**! It's all just... just pain and time, all right? It's all going to heal and my hair grows fast. They aren't going to get serious as long as they think my father will give some sort of ransom." He pulled back and managed a contemptuous sneer. "They're amateurs anyway, falling in the turtleduck pond hurt worse, to say nothing of, you know," he overtly turned the scarred side of his face towards the water tribesman.

Sokka forced himself to take slower breaths, focused on cleaning and wrapping the injured soles. "So you don't see a problem with this situation?" He took refuge in his old friend, sarcasm.

"Oh, I can think of a dozen places I'd rather be right now, and that's only counting places I can go without being arrested. And there is one rather serious problem I can see..." A faint smirk had begun to creep onto his face, and the water tribesman was almost afraid to ask.

"And what, in particular, would that be?"

The prince gave a theatrical look over to the other prisoners in the cell and said with thick worry, "I appear to be shirtless around your sister."

"You... I..." Sokka was torn between laughter and tears and could only lean forward and press a light kiss to the only unbruised part of Zuko's forehead he could find. "I'm almost certain I'm supposed to be the one comforting you in this situation."

"You are." A tiny crack appeared in casual facade, but it was of gratitude as much as pain. "I'm... I'll survive, Sokka, it's what I do. But it's better that you're here."

"Okay, well then you're gonna put up with me cleaning those cuts, too, and that's that." He squeezed the prince's arm gently and went to get more water.

**lineline**

"Um, Zuko?" Aang seemed unwilling to remind the prince that there were people sharing his cell besides Sokka, but finally screwed up his courage after all of Zuko's wounds had been cleaned and he had taken on a meditative pose to wait for what happened next.

"Yes, Avatar?" The tone was cold but bizarrely polite. As if they were at some sort of formal meeting instead of both imprisoned.

"Er, I was just wondering, um, if you'd tried meditating on that crown thingie like Roku said to..."

"Yes."

There was a pause.

"Um... did anything happen?"

"Yes."

Sokka was trying to figure out if the prince was messing with Aang's head on purpose or just didn't like to give extra information. Either way it was almost fun.

"Augh! Zuko, could you please tell me **what** happened?"

"It gave me a completely confused vision and a worse headache than that Yu Yan rum..."

Aang blinked. This wasn't the outcome he'd been led to expect. "Uh, really?"

"Really."

"I don't think that was supposed to happen."

"He probably did it wrong," Katara put in with some annoyance. "And didn't we agree not to talk to the enemy?"

Sokka restrained an urge to argue that Zuko wasn't their enemy, because, well, he was, but only in the specific context of trying to capture Aang and get home. Which, admittedly was a pretty important context, but he could put it aside for things that were more urgent and Sokka was almost certain he could convince Zuko that getting out of here was more urgent. Finding something that could be more urgent for the rest of the year until they could end the war was a bigger challenge, but one that he held out hope for.

Aang was still focused on that crown thing. "I don't think you can meditate wrong, Katara. And it was supposed to give you insight into your destiny or something. Are you sure it didn't?"

"Since I already knew my destiny was to be Fire Lord, the only additional insight it provided was the possibility that I'll be taking some sort of strong hallucinogens during my coronation. Not very helpful."

Sokka thought a hallucinogenic coronation sounded kinda cool and was going to ask for more details, when Katara interrupted again. "Wait, if you already know what your destiny is going to be, why are you so stressed all the time?"

"What?" Zuko and Sokka spoke at almost the same moment.

"Yeah, that's a good question." Aang nodded as sagely as a monk chained to a wall can. "If you know you're going to be Fire Lord, you shouldn't act so worried about failing."

Zuko was looking at both of them like they had two to three heads each. "I don't know that I'm **going** to be Fire Lord, I know that my** destiny **is to be Fire Lord."

The monk exchanged a look with Katara before going into his _calm explanation _voice. "But that's what a destiny is, it's what's going to happen."

Zuko matched his _calm explanation _and raised him a _gentle correction_. "No, it's what can and should happen, but not necessarily what's going to happen."

"But if it's not going to happen, how could it be destiny?"

"Okay, okay, I think I see the problem here..." Sokka nodded wisely, while patting the prince's arm in a_ let's not set anyone on fire _way. "You two are talking about... like Aunt Wu destiny. That's girl type destiny, that's not warrior destiny."

"Girl type destiny? What does that even mean?" The water tribesman was briefly grateful to the earthbenders for chaining up his sister where she couldn't hurt him, then briefly guilty, then went on trying to explain.

"Like the way everyone was in that stupid village, that's how girls see their destiny. You go to a fortune teller and she says 'you're going to marry Aang and have six kids' and you figure 'well, that's settled' and don't worry about it, cause_ la de da _it's just going to happen somehow."

"Wait, did Aunt Wu really say-"

"But for warriors, a destiny is more like... a goal, but moreso. It's something that you're meant for, but you can still screw up, or someone else can screw it up for you if you aren't good enough - you have to work for it."

"She never said I was going to-"

"If girl destiny says you're going to get home safe, you just smile at the platypus bear like an idiot, but if warrior destiny says you should get home safe, you pack a sword and do what you have to to **make** it come true."

"So she said you wouldn't marry me?"

"No, she never said anything specific, just that I would marry a powerful bender!"

Sokka frowned. "You guys haven't heard a word I said, have you?"

A shoulder gently bumped his, and he saw a small smile on Zuko's face. "Not a word of it, which is too bad, you cleared up the confusion pretty well."

"Oooh, am I not an idiot, yet?"

"No, you're a complete idiot for picking an opening example that ruined the rest of the explanation."

"Jerk..."

**lineline**

A guard brought some stew to them for dinner, as usual sticking Sokka's feet to the floor before entering. Zuko was also restrained, though by a more vise-like stone grasp, which the water tribesman could barely hold himself back from objecting to. They had already hurt him enough, what did they think he was going to be able to do to them?

Then again, seeing golden eyes almost glow with hate as they followed the earthbender around the cell, adjusting Aang's chains so he was sitting with his hands on the floor, refilling the water and leaving the food, he could see their point just a little. He wondered what this particular soldier had done to Zuko and suddenly was filled with a rage of his own, a reddish tinge to his vision. He saw the truth of each individual wound on his friend as a blow, not in a battle but struck against the prince when he was helpless. Every one of them struck by one of these men, and he wished with all his heart that he was a bender and could kill with his anger.

"Sokka!" Zuko's quiet voice shook him out of his near-trance. "You need to feed the Avatar and your sister."

"Man, just because I can't bend I have to do everything around here..." He heard an angry growl from Katara but saw a hint of a smile from the prince, so it was worth it. He gave them each some water first then knelt down between the two to offer spoonfuls to each in turn until about half of it was left. Aang looked disturbed at first, but Sokka made the effort to avoid the little chunks of meat in his share and the monk was apparently hungry enough to tolerate the broth.

When he set the bowl aside to get them more water, Katara looked annoyed. "Honestly Sokka, you're really going to give yourself twice as much as us?"

"Huh?" He looked down at the remainder in the bowl. "Of course not... what, you were thinking we should let Zuko starve?" She didn't actually say yes, but she looked it and he closed his eyes for a moment to let the anger pass. She had been through a lot today, she didn't know the prince like he had gotten to, she probably couldn't even see how badly hurt he was from over here... "Just- just try to get some sleep you two, if Major Jerk doesn't agree to let us go tomorrow, we'll have to start working on an escape plan." He almost hoped they would have to escape. It would be fairly easy to justify bringing Zuko with them since he could provide aid in getting out.

"Okay, Sokka," Aang said cheerfully. "It was nice of them to let me sit for the night!"

"Yeah, they're just a bunch of great guys..." He got some more water and went back to sit with the prince. "All right, here comes the dragon into the cave, _rawr! rawr!_" He laughed at the glare that resulted. "Sorry, I can only spoon-feed so any people before I start to lose it."

"So your contention is that you ever had 'it' to begin with?" But there was laughter smothered under the sarcasm, and he accepted the mouthful.

Sokka planned to trade off mouthfuls, but Zuko ate like... well okay, he ate like royalty, which, yeah, reasonable, but still, surely the courtly manners could take a break when you're eating prison food with your hands tied behind your back? So the water tribesman ended up stuffing his mouth and talking with it full and just trying to keep an eye on the level of stew in the bowl so he could stop in time to leave Zuko his share.

"So tell me about the hallucinogenic coronation vision," he said cheerfully but quietly, wanting Aang and Katara to have their sleep... and not really wanting to share the conversation with them. "Not that I know why an avatar artifact should give_ you _any special visions..."

The prince finished chewing and swallowed, and if he'd had free hands and a napkin probably would have patted his lips or something like that to boot. "Well, it's also a Fire Nation royal artifact." He smiled slightly at Sokka's surprised look. "It hasn't been used for the last hundred years, but it was traditionally worn by the crown prince, as the flame crown is worn by the Fire Lord."

"Okay, Roku wasn't a prince was he, because you'd think he could have stopped the war from starting pretty easily if he was..."

"No, but he was a member of the upper nobility, and a friend to Prince Sozin. A few of the histories mention that it was at a shared birthday party for the two that Roku's identity as the Avatar was revealed." He gave the spoon a significant look and Sokka fed him another mouthful.

"So Roku was good enough friends with the guy who started the whole mess to be getting royal artifacts as presents? That's weird to imagine." He took a larger spoonful himself and continued with his mouth full. "But I guess it makes some sense to give it back to you."

"Well, I'm not the crown prince at the moment, but I can hold onto it... Could I have some more water?"

"Of course." He went for more and checked Aang and Katara on the way. They seemed to be sleeping as comfortably as their positions allowed. "I think the rest of the stew is yours, I've been eating a lot more." He wiped away a bit of water that had escaped the dipper onto the prince's chin and found himself pausing there, hand gently cupping his face and looking at him. Split lip, bruises, scar, truly awful haircut and all, he was still...

"Sokka?" Oops, Zuko had been saying something.

"Uh, yeah, sorry." He quickly got another spoonful of stew to bring up to him, only to be stopped by a laugh.

"I just **said** that I wouldn't be able to eat much more anyway, so you could finish it." An amused smirk followed the laugh. "Though maybe you should just get some sleep."

"Oh, um..." Sokka covered his pause to remember what was going on by shoveling down the last of the stew in large enough mouthfuls that even he couldn't talk through them. "Yeah, I guess sleep would be good, but you don't want those cuts getting dirt in them..." He took his tunic off and draped it around Zuko's shoulders before situating his back to the wall and gently turning the prince, careful of his injured feet. "You can, um, use me as a pillow if you need one." He was pretty sure he was blushing. Well, he's just offered to let the prince of the Fire Nation sleep on his lap, so maybe that was justified, but it still wasn't manly.

Luckily, said prince apparently was too tired to mock, because he merely said "Thank you, Sokka," and lay down, his head on the water tribesman's knee and blue tunic sheltering his injuries from the floor.

"Hmmm... you still didn't tell me about the headache inducing vision..."

There was a pause then Zuko sleepily replied. "I don't know if I can even put it into words. It was... there was two of everything, but it was the same thing, just two different things at the same time."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"No, hence the headache."

"Give me an example."

"Okay, the simplest one would be that I was wearing the Fire Lord's formal robes of office and I was wearing royal funeral robes... and it wasn't as if it was switching back and forth between the two, they were just both true at the same time and I could see both when I looked down at myself."

"Huh. Hence the headache, indeed. Why would you be wearing funeral robes at your coronation?" Sokka noticed idly that he was running his fingers through the wispy remains of Zuko's hair. This was probably a bad idea, but he wasn't on fire and the prince even seemed relaxed, so he just enjoyed the sensation.

"Unless the current Fire Lord cedes the throne or is mentally incapacitated by age or illness, coronations are usually part of the same ceremony as the former Lord's funeral."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense..." He found himself yawning and leaned his head back. "Should probably let you sleep..."

"Yeah, I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow," and there was a gallows' humor that pushed sleep back, not all the way, but a step as he looked down at his friend's face, scarred side turned up towards him, but still somehow gentler with how tired he was.

"Zuko, you said they wouldn't do anything... permanent because they thought you were worth ransom... You- you are, right? I mean, you're banished, but you're still a prince, your... the Fire Lord wouldn't leave you here?"

Maybe it was wrong to ask, to ask him to face the question so explicitly, but his tone was only factual when he spoke. "I can see three possibilities. He might offer them something insultingly paltry, the standard war ransom for a low status general, maybe. They'd probably send one of my fingers with the next demand instead of the topknot just to show they're serious. He might ignore the message entirely, which would be for the best because they would assume internal negotiations over what can be done or longer transit times than the hawks take or even a lost message, and things would just go on like this for a while, and maybe I'll get a chance to get out of here in the meantime." His voice was dropping a little, too tired to be kept awake for long. "Or he might just tell them no. In which case... two days by priority hawk relay to the capitol, one day to discuss it and have an official response drawn up, two days back... and then I'm officially only useful for taking out 100 years of war frustrations on and maybe some sort of propaganda."

Sokka felt a little sick, not so much at the idea that the Fire Lord was enough of a bastard to let that happen, because, you know - Fire Lord, but realizing how much pain Zuko had to be in acknowledging the possibility to himself. It was a truth that he'd always seen the prince push away, had barely admitted the possibility of when they were both thoroughly drunk, but he was addressing his situation strategically, and the idea that his father might respond in a way such that things would 'get serious' in less than a week was just a strategic fact.

"It doesn't matter." His voice sounded strange to his own ears, angry and tender and certain all at once. "I shouldn't have... it doesn't matter what he decides, you're going to be out of here by tomorrow night."

He saw sleepy eyes open and concern_ (hello, you're the one who's been tortured, stop acting concerned about me, jerk) _fill them. "Sokka... your sister isn't wrong, I'm- I **am** your enemy when all's said and done. You can't risk-"

It was a crazy awkward angle, but he leaned over anyway and kissed him, just for a moment, trying to avoid hurting his already bruised mouth. "Seriously? Shut up. Don't tell me what I can risk, don't tell me what my sister is right or wrong about, and don't _**ever**_ tell me what you are to me. Just shut up and go to sleep. This is the only night you're spending here."

And Sokka leaned back and fell asleep himself, knowing that whether Major Jerk let the Avatar and his companions go or not, he had a prison break to attend to the next day.

**A/N : It seems obvious that when Zuko talks about his destiny in the series he doesn't mean it in the same way that the people in The Fortune Teller episode regarded Aunt Wu's prophecies. Hence the distinction between Girl Destiny (as our lovable sexist cow-pig calls it) and Warrior Destiny. I might expand on the conversation in the next chapter with an analogy or two, or leave a greater exploration of the topic for a future drabble.**

**A/N2 : This fic is in the homestretch, and once it's done I'll probably start another ongoing work. (Trying not to lose myself in too many projects at once.) Deciding between Yet Another Modern High School AU, a first season AU with capturefic overtones, a Dark!Sokka Slave!Zuko season two smut fest, or some other type of fun. Feel free to make recommendations. ;-)**


	10. Fire Nation rescue

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warnings : Further references to torture, complete digression from canon.**

Sokka wasn't sure what had woken him at first. Then he was distracted from figuring it out by the warm and rather comfortable weight on his chest. Apparently at some point he'd slipped down to a lying position in his sleep and pulled Zuko up to, well, snuggle him. When they were both shirtless. In a totally manly way... Okay, maybe not, but it felt nice anyway. Seriously though, he was going to have to work this out. Respecting, or even being friends with the guy trying to destroy the world's last hope (even if he was only doing it because his father was a jerk and he wanted to go home) was one thing, but happily snuggling the prince of the Fire Nation was wrong on so many levels, it-

But then Zuko sensed his tension and woke up, and Sokka saw fear in his face for just a moment as he remembered where he was... fear that melted away when he saw Sokka, and all the tribesman wanted was to see that look of comfort and relief at his presence whenever he could. Crap this was going to be a problem, and he started to say so, explain that they really had to figure something out that didn't involve being on opposite sides of the most important conflict ever, but was interrupted by the same noise that must have woken him to begin with.

Katara sobbing in her sleep.

He probably wouldn't have dumped Zuko off his lap in his hurry to check his sister, but that didn't have to be tested, because the prince rolled gracefully off of him and into a sitting position almost as soon as Sokka had identified the sound. He held back a surge of gratitude at the other boy's understanding before it could manifest as something embarrassing and unmanly, and moved quickly across the cell to gently shake his sister.

"Hey 'Tara, it's okay, wake up..." He held her as best he could around the chains as she began to cling to him, petting her hair like he always had when they were children and she was scared.

"They were going to... they..." Curse it, now he was all _wish I had an Avatar State _mad again, and mad at himself to boot. He'd been so angry at what those bastards had done to Zuko, he'd pushed what had almost happened to Katara into the background. And Zuko could take it, he was tough, a warrior, Katara had probably needed him more, really.

"It's okay, sis, it's over, they aren't going to hurt you, we're gonna get out of here and I'm gonna break those guys' faces on the way out. Maybe we'll get Zuko to set a couple on fire too, huh?"

"Zuko?" Oops, back to cold angry Katara, looking over to the other side of the cell with disgust before lowering her voice. "You think we're bringing that monster with us if we have to break out of here?"

And, okay, trying to comfort not argue, yeah, yeah but really? Seriously? She was going to be like this when the guy, any guy, had been hurt that badly, and all because he-

"He thought it was funny." Oh spirits. She didn't think... "He was practically laughing at what was happening, he probably wanted to stay and watch, and you think we should..." But no, that was what it _sounded_ like, that was what Zuko had **meant** it to sound like because being concerned would have been bad for them all, but couldn't she see that he had just been trying to draw attention, couldn't she...?

No. She hadn't seen the mask pulled down so many times it couldn't be seen as anything but a shield. She'd never heard sympathy in the prince's voice, or regret for needing to kill, or stumbling, awkwardly expressed affection. She'd been worried exclusively about Aang and probably hadn't even noticed Zuko playing 'just a soldier, don't look at me' when they were first brought in, before something became more important (or as he would say it, more urgent) than putting off what would happen to the Fire Prince as an Earth Kingdom prisoner. She couldn't see what he had been doing, had just heard the same thing the soldiers had. Curse it.

"Katara, no, I know it seemed that way, but it was an act, he just-"

"How do you know?" And she was still angry, not just at the prince but at him. "How do you_ know _that was an act and the face he's been showing you isn't? You take a walk with the guy and he gets you drunk for one night and now you know him so well you'll choose him over your family? Put aside the things he's done and risk Aang and everything that depends on him to save the prince of the Fire Nation a couple of extra beatings until he's ransomed?"

Sokka remembered Zuko's words from earlier, that they really were enemies in spite of anything else they might be. He didn't know how to argue with either of them, any logical point to make, and Katara wouldn't accept what he felt - wouldn't even accept what she** knew **of what he felt, and he was getting a bad feeling that she didn't know the half of it.

So he just held her close and said, "Try to sleep some more, Katara." He'd figure something out.

**lineline**

He woke again to a soft impact on the side of his head. When did 'Tara start wanting pillow fights again? Wait, where did she find a pillow in prison?

He opened his eyes to see his tunic and arm wraps in a bundle beside him and heard Zuko's voice hiss from across the cell, "Put your shirt on, someone's coming!" Well that made a little more sense... except for wondering just how flexible the prince was to get the wraps off his feet and throw the whole bundle while tied up. Okay, one thing at a time this early in the morning, and he could explore Zuko's flexibility when they were all out of here, and oh man, he did_ not _just think that.

Sokka resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall in favor of getting dressed as he heard voices approaching. By the time the cell door opened, he was no more rumpled looking than one would expect after spending the night in a cell.

To his surprise, his feet were not held to the floor as they usually were, though the stone lapped up around Zuko as before. Four men entered the cell together, the major approaching Aang with the sergeant who had originally captured them, and the two other soldiers going to lift the prince and carry him out. "Come on, Your Highness," one said with a smirk, "The major has some new tricks he wants you to learn while you're here." As they dragged him past, Sokka caught his eye. _You'll be out of here by tonight_, he tried to promise silently._ Just hang on_.

The sergeant, meanwhile, had already begun to unshackle Aang as the Major spoke pompously. "There hasn't been time for a message to Omashu, but the relay corps reported that any message from the Avatar to King Bumi should be given strongest priority, backing up your claim of being his ally. And the data we have on the steel rig escapees confirms your cooperation there as well. So, I am willing to release you, on the condition that you swear an oath that neither you nor any under your command will interfere with those acting under the authority of the Earth Kingdom again." Sokka glanced over at Aang, but to his surprise the monk didn't even meet his eyes.

"Of course, sir, our interference in the first place was an accident, and we'll be sure to be more careful next time! I swear as the Avatar and stuff." He stopped and seemed to think as Katara was unshackled as well. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what's going to happen to Prince Zuko? He seemed, um, awfully beat up, and even though he's tried to capture us and stuff, I kind of don't think..."

The major's face darkened for a moment, but then he forced an entirely fake looking smile. "The prince was injured trying to escape, and I'm afraid we had to take harsh measures to prevent another occurrence, but as we are negotiating a ransom from the Fire Lord, you certainly don't have to worry about anything serious happening to him in the meantime." Aang looked guilelessly relieved, Katara had the nerve to give Sokka an_ I told you so look _and Sokka just focused on keeping a straight face and not punching anyone. "Now, the sergeant will take you to your animal, and you may continue on your way. I have other things to attend to." As he turned to walk out of the cell, the water tribesman saw that his smile was no longer fake, but the same one he had worn when he trapped Katara among his men.

**lineline**

"Oh Appa, it's so good to see you!" Aang leapt up and hugged the Sky Bison's head while the giant beast lowed happily. "Did they feed you at all, why don't you eat some grass before we get moving! And stretch out, I know I needed one! Sokka, we don't need to get going yet, Appa should eat!"

"I know," he said shortly as he continued to climb up to the basket. "I need to get some things." He found the bag that he had originally brought from the South Pole and stuffed it with his spare tunic, parka and the last of his facepaint. He hadn't brought much else but provisions, which were long gone, and his sleeping bag which was beginning to smell moldered from too many magic water soakings.

"Um, what are you doing?" Katara asked as he slid down and shouldered the pack.

He took a deep breath and gave a preemptive mental apology to Gran Gran for fighting with his sister. "I told Zuko I would get him out of there and I'm going to do it."

"But Sokka!" Aang said before Katara could respond, "If the major finds out we broke our promise-"

"_Your _promise," he cut in and didn't bother keeping the irritation out of his voice. "But since you don't have to come and I'm** not **under your command, I don't see the relevance."

"Oh please," came that famous_ I'm going to act like I'm your mother even though you're a year and a half older than me _voice, "you are not going to run off on your own again just because that soldier treated Aang as the leader instead of you, are you?"

"No, I'm not running off at all, and I don't care what that asshole major thought. I'm just giving the facts. I'm a man of the Southern Tribe and a blooded warrior, and the only person who can swear an oath on my behalf is Chief Hakoda. So what Aang promised has nothing to do with what I'm doing. What** I **promised is pretty important to me, though."

"So you're going to release one of the biggest threats to us and ruin Aang's relationship with the Earth Kingdom and you don't think that's any of our business?"

Sokka really had been planning on getting through this conversation without shouting. "Zuko isn't going to be a threat to anyone until he's had a couple of weeks to heal, by which time Aang will be at the Northern Water Tribe, and they aren't going to know it's me, so I'm not ruining anything! Give me a little credit here, Katara!"

"You think you're going to be able to do this alone?"

"I have a plan!"

"Your last plan was to go to Zuko for help, who are you going to get buddy buddy with this time, Admiral Zhao?"

"How can you even compare those two!"

"Gee, because they're both violent firebenders out to capture Aang maybe?"

"_ENOUGH!"_

Oh, fine, **he** gets the glowy eyes when he's mad... Okay, Aang is mad enough for glowy eyes, let's calm down a little.

"This isn't worth you two tearing each other apart about! You still love each other, so listen and accept what the other feels!" The glow had gone, but Aang was still in full _I'm the Avatar so listen up_ mode. "Katara, Sokka's right that I have no ability to swear an oath on his behalf. I kinda knew that was an out in what the major was asking, and I was okay with that because he seemed kinda slimy. And if Sokka thinks it won't hurt my reputation with the Earth Kingdom, I trust him."

His triumphant smirk was interrupted, unfortunately. "And Sokka, I know Zuko is your friend, and it seems that he's got some honorable traits, but he does have a single minded purpose to bring me home to his dad. No matter what shape he's in, we're in more danger with him out of prison than in it. I don't think it's safe for Katara and me to hang around the place he last saw us and wait for you to somehow rescue him, get him somewhere safe and get back to us. What if he captures you? What if he sends someone to follow you? We've already lost over a day to this mess, and we've got Zhao on our trail, too."

The young monk looked at his feet and Sokka knew he didn't want to say what came next. "I think you need to decide what is most important to you."

He closed his eyes, wishing life made even the slight amount of sense it had before the plant monster and the forest and the beach. "Getting you trained and defeating the Fire Lord is the most important thing, Aang." He heard Katara take a breath but continued on, "But Zuko's situation is the more urgent matter right now." He fixed his sister with a serious gaze before she could object. "You're right about the delay and the danger though. That's why I want you two to get moving to the Northern Water Tribe."

The two both burst out with objections and even Appa didn't seem to like the plan, but Sokka waited it out and tried for his best calm, rational voice when they let him talk. "We're less than a day from Northport and after that it's all ocean. You won't need me for hunting or guarding the camp, and Appa will make better time with only two of you. When you get there, you'll have dozens of warriors to protect you. You don't need me there, and I can make myself a general pain in the ass to Zuko and Zhao, and maybe lay a few false trails so they don't know you're already at the North Pole." Katara still looked cranky, but Aang was clearly thinking about his logic. "We'll meet up in Omashu in the spring when you're ready to learn earthbending, and have lots of crazy stories to tell each other."

His sister wasn't looking at him, which probably meant she was going to admit he was right. "I don't like this, Sokka."

"It's not my first choice either. But I need to do this, and I need to keep you and Aang safe, and this is the best way to do both."

There was a long moment of no one looking at each other, and then they all moved in for the hug at once.

**lineline**

Sokka panted as he ran through the woods, again wishing there was room to work out on a flying bison. He wished for a few other things, like that he hadn't left the map with Aang (who could never read it anyway) or the ability to fly. Zuko had definitely had the right idea about that. Seriously, Sozin had probably wiped out the air nomads because he was jealous that they could fly and he couldn't.

The trees were thinning out, maybe he'd picked the right direction for a port. The encouraging thought allowed him to pick up the pace a little and he was moving fairly fast as he came around a curve in the path...

Running literally smack into a group of Fire Nation soldiers.

"Where do you think you're going, Water Tribe?" one asked as he picked himself up off the ground.

"He certainly doesn't belong here," another put in.

Okay, time to test a theory. Stand up straight, deepen voice as much as possible, look confident and like he's in charge.

"I need to see General Iroh. Take me to him, immediately!"

And what do ya know, it worked...

**lineline**

A hour later Sokka had learned several important things. The first was that Zuko's uncle came across at first meeting as a totally harmless and jolly gentleman who probably would be happy to serve him tea and talk about his life for a few hours regardless of national affiliation or the whole "need to capture the Avatar" thing.

The second was that that particular impression went away** really **fast when the Dragon of the West found out his nephew was in trouble. In fact, the side of Iroh that Sokka's news revealed was so far from 'harmless' that in spite of his own desire for revenge, the water tribesman found himself extracting a promise that there would be no more violence than needed to free the prince before he would show the general where the earthbenders were.

The third thing he learned was that Fire Nation armor was very annoying to put on and the fourth was that rhinos weren't nearly as easy to change clothes on as a sky bison.

"So, uh, do we have a plan?" he asked as he settled the helmet to hide his Water Tribe features.

"Yes," Iroh replied calmly as he dismounted and headed towards the base. "I will distract the majority of the troops while you make your way into the prison building and bring Prince Zuko out." He handed Sokka a horn like the one he had taken off the Yu Yan. "When you get back to the rhinos blow one short and one long and I will join you."

"Okay, that sounds good..." He couldn't help but notice that flames were already glowing from the old firebender's hands, starting to circle around him and pulsing with his breath. "Er... how exactly are you going to distract them?"

The general was already walking away as he said calmly over his shoulder, "I am going to smash their miserable encampment to ashes and rubble. That should distract them."

"New rule," Sokka muttered to himself as he headed the other direction before cutting towards his goal. "Do not mess with Zuko when his uncle is around. Just saying..."

**lineline**

Sokka ducked into the shadow of a building before taking a chance and sprinting to the prison entrance. An explosion echoed from the other side of the compound and he had already seen several soldiers leaving to help with what everyone seemed to assume was an entire patrol of firebenders attacking. Not that he blamed them.

Quick run down to the cell where they had been held before - empty. Okay, he was pretty sure the men who had taken Zuko that morning had turned further down the hall when they left rather than towards the outside. So, he just had to move that way and check rooms.

The hall ended in an intersection with another before he found any sign of the prince. Which way to go? He hesitated a moment and then he heard it. A sharp sound halfway between a crack and a slap. Then another. It came from the right and Sokka headed that way, unsheathing the short sword he'd borrowed with the uniform. As he neared the end of the hall, he heard the voice of the sergeant.

"...lose any men, the major's gonna take it out of your hide." A grunt of effort and another sharp crack. "Maybe he'll be in a more forgiving mood if you've learned to introduce yourself the right w-" Sokka had thrown open the door by then, and was charging the man before he could even fully process what his eyes were taking in. Zuko kneeling, chained facing the wall, blood running down his back. The sergeant with his outer robes off, having built up a sweat in the stiflingly small room. He turned at the intrusion and swung the whip in his hand at the tribesman, but it was an awkward angle and it barely stung as it wrapped around his arm, slipping off and leaving a darker red stain on the Fire Nation uniform.

_Zuko's blood_, he thought and that rage came back again, but this time he was free and had a sword in his hand. He swung hard, feeling the blade bite into the arm that the soldier instinctively flung up to defend himself, slowing it so that the impact with his head wasn't immediately fatal. Sokka could fix that, though. He yanked the weapon free and turned it in his hand to stab rather than swing. "You bastard," he heard his own voice distorted by the face mask, and the sound was so strange and alien that it stopped him for a moment - the moment it took to realize that the sergeant was no longer a threat and anything he did now would be murder.

"Curse it." He replaced his sword and searched the downed man quickly for keys. Lifting the mask he spoke gently to Zuko as he searched for a fit to the shackles. "Hey, you ready to get out of here?" He was concerned when the other boy didn't respond, he had a glazed look in his eyes somewhere between meditative and catatonic. The chains fell away, but the prince still didn't move, eyes focused on something beyond the walls of the room. "Come on, Zuko, I don't know if I can carry you, come back okay?" He gently cradled the pale jaw as he had the night before in the cell and gazed at him for a long moment until the golden eyes seemed to clear and focus on him.

"Hey." It came out as a dry croak. "Your turn to dress up?"

He fought back a laugh that would probably turn into a sob if he let it. "Yeah, I figured it was only fair. Listen, do you think you can stay on your feet for ten minutes? Just that long, then you get to sleep for a week, I promise. I know it will hurt..."

There was a look he couldn't quite identify in those beautiful eyes. "Will you be there while I sleep?"

He felt like he'd been hit in the chest, not breathing for just a second. "And when you wake up."

Zuko put one arm around his shoulder and grabbed a bolt in the wall with the other hand to help haul himself up.

"Let's get out of here."

**A/N : Iroh's "distraction" plan is unapologetically ripped off from the first episode of Buffy season two, where she says she's "going to kill them all. That ought to distract them." **

**A/N2 : Do people think I need a beta? I've been mostly re-reading and spell checking, and I don't feel like the errors that remain are painful... and I like being able to post when I'm done rather than waiting on another person... but if folks feel like there's a lot of room for improvement, I could look for one for the future.**


	11. Interlude the third

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

Zuko stood in his formal robes of office as he was kneeling in his royal funeral robes. He could see his long hair spilling down past his waist while he hoped the short shaggy locks had finally grown out enough to stay in their topknot until this was over. The crowd stood before him in uniform rows of red robes, and it was a jumble of colors from the different nations, mixing and mingling in a festival atmosphere.

He spoke and motioned someone forward while kneeling in silence beside his sister. A fire sage spoke over his father's body as the Avatar walked into the same space, smiling at Zuko and then to the crowd. The young prince felt joy and hope as he saw the nations assembled in peace. The grown prince felt only emptyness as he watched his father consigned to ashes. He knelt before the crowd and felt the flame crown placed in his topknot. He rose as Fire Lord.

Fire Lord Zuko walked to the capitol prison tower, keeping pace with the sedan chair he rode in. He approached a cell that had long held the same man, and looked at the new prisoner. He hardened his heart against the words of his father, and spoke gently to the Avatar. Zuko entered the cell and unchained the monk while he stood before the bars and coldly addressed the former Fire Lord. He asked a question. An offer. A demand. He nodded coldly at the answer as he hung his head in shame. He left the cell to begin his reign.

**A/N : If you're confused, just think how poor Zuko feels! **


	12. Headache inducing, indeed

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warning : Second half of the chapter is kind of an info dump. Sorry.**

It was two full days before Zuko truly woke up. Sokka spent the entire time in his quarters, tending his wounds, feeding him broth when he roused enough to swallow it and napping fitfully on a pile of spare blankets beside the prince's bed. Most of the attentiveness was caused by concern for his friend, and the rest by a nervous unwillingness to leave the room and deal with the crew. Zuko was his friend and Iroh clearly had the potential to be completely awesome when not worried sick about his nephew, but Sokka was still Water Tribe and he was on a ship full of firebenders. There were concerns.

He was in the midst of a nap when a hand gently shook his shoulder. "Ugh, sorry Iroh, I fell asleep..."

"That happens, but I'm more curious why you're sleeping on my floor." He shot up so quickly he almost knocked heads with Zuko as the prince leaned over the edge of the bed to observe him.

"You're awake! I was getting worried, when I said you could sleep for a week I didn't think you'd take me up on it! Do you think you can eat some solid food? How do you feel? Do you-"

He was interrupted by a hand placed over his mouth. "Sokka," the other boy said very firmly, "why are you sleeping on my floor?" The hand was removed while golden eyes looked steadily at him, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I was, um, keeping an eye on you, and I didn't think you'd want me climbing into your bed," Stop blushing, Sokka! "So I just borrowed a blanket for when I needed to nap..."

"You could have had a crewman bring you a cot or something." When Sokka dared to look over, he realized that Zuko was blushing lightly himself.

"I guess, but I didn't know how long you'd be out, and I figured it would be silly to ask for something like that when you might be kicking me out before my next nap, and well..." He looked away again, blushing even more. "I should go tell your uncle that you're awake, he's been worried about you, and then I don't know if you want me to stay on the ship for a while longer until you're all the way on your feet, I guess I could sleep in one of the crew bunks or a cot in here if that would be okay, or-"

"Please shut up for a moment," Zuko said in the tone of affectionate annoyance that Sokka was used to hearing when the prince talked about Iroh, and then the water tribesman was being grabbed by the arms and bodily pulled up onto the bed.

"Hey, careful, you have stitches in your back and cracked ribs and you shouldn't be..." He gave up at that point, partly because he was rapidly losing his train of thought and partly because he was pretty sure he couldn't be understood anyway with a mouth over his.

A very nice, warm mouth. Surprisingly soft and gentle considering how rough most of the firebender's other actions tended to be. It tasted sweet and a little spicy. He could get used to not being allowed to talk if this mouth was going to be in the way.

By the time the prince pulled away, Sokka had shifted them so he wasn't putting pressure on any of the other boy's injuries, and lightly caressing his cheek. He was quiet for a moment, just looking into those golden eyes and enjoying a moment of contentment before he was overwhelmed with the inevitable panic.

"Sokka, I know this is all really complicated, and I've got some pretty crazy stuff to figure out myself, but I just need you to answer a question for me." Zuko looked like he was holding back his own panic. "I- I'm not asking if you will, or can, or if you think you're allowed to, I just want to know... Do you_ want _to stay with me?"

Well, that was a deceptively simple question. "Yeah. I definitely want to." Not that it could possibly work, or be okay with his father, or Katara, or oh yeah Aang and what was he supposed to do while Zuko chased after Aang, just hang out in his quarters and pretend nothing was happening, and...

A quick, light kiss broke his thoughts. "I really want you to stay, too. I know it's not that simple, but even if it doesn't work out, I guess I just wanted to know how you felt." The prince was blushing again, which was really pretty cute, and the light fuzz that had grown in on his usually shaven scalp during his imprisonment and recovery made him look more like an awkward teen and less like a crazy-determined Fire Prince out to restore his honor. Sokka reached out and ran his hand over it.

"You should keep this, you know. That whole head shaving thing is not the best look on you."

He got a glare that said_ it's not a fashion choice and by the way you're an idiot I'm falling in love with_, but before he could be yelled at, the door opened.

"Ah, Zuko, you're awake!" Iroh came in and handed the tray of food in his hands off to Sokka before enveloping his nephew in a loving hug. "I was beginning to worry! I brought this for your young friend since he has refused to leave your side, but if you want to share it I can get more." Sokka noticed that if the old general had any thoughts on the close proximity of the two boys on the bed he didn't bother to share them. Then again, Zuko had seemed more amused by the Water Tribe taboos on men together than anything.

"Actually, I think I need to clean up even more than I need food," the prince said after he had submitted to his uncle's embrace. "Why don't you arrange a meal for all of us in the dining room... I need your advice on something." Iroh looked rather surprised, but smiled broadly.

"Just do not push yourself too hard, eat a little before you try to get up and let Sokka help you."

"Gee, _you_ pushing yourself too hard, where would your uncle ever get a silly idea like that...?"

"Hush, you." Zuko shoved him off the bed then stood unsteadily himself.

"Yeah, that looks a lot like eating a little first... sit back down and have some food while I run you a bath, you macho dork."

"...Fine." He sat again in a way that looked only slightly like a collapse and began to eat the cheese and bread that Iroh had included in the mad hope that Sokka would eat anything but meat. "But I'm keeping a mental list of insults and you'll pay for them when I'm feeling better."

Sokka peeked out of the washroom long enough to stick out his tongue. "If you haven't set me on fire by now, you think I still believe you will?"

A very direct gaze and distinct smirk. "I said you would pay, not how."

Sokka found himself blushing and ducked back out of sight... just to check the water, of course.

**

* * *

**

When Zuko came into the dining room leaning heavily on the water tribesman's shoulder, a surprised but pleased expression came over Iroh's face. But he merely gestured for the two boys to sit and poured tea while encouraging them both to eat. Not that Sokka needed much encouragement, it was probably the best meal he had had since King Bumi's feast, and he wasn't distracted by a fear of imminent doom for this one.

"So, Nephew," the general said quietly when they had all been reduced to picking at the remains of their meals. "You said you needed my advice. Which is somewhat unusual, I must say."

"Zuko needing your advice, or him actually saying so?" Sokka asked with a grin. He refused to be intimidated by the glare and very obvious addition to the prince's mental list of insults to be avenged.

"Ehem, the latter most definitely, so I am quite curious. What is it that you need assistance with?"

Zuko stopped glaring and took Roku's crown out of a pocket of his robe. "Do you know what this is, Uncle?"

Iroh all but swallowed his tongue. "I... er... yes?" Shaking himself slightly he reached forward and took it. "This is the crown that Prince Sozin gave to Avatar Roku when he left the Fire Nation to begin his training in the other three elements... how did you come to have it?"

"The Avatar gave it to me, apparently at the request of Roku. He suggested that I meditate on it to give me greater insight into my destiny, which for some reason he believed would be helpful to him." Sokka noticed that the prince gave no details on how he came to be having such a conversation with the avatar and his uncle didn't press him for them. Instead he turned the crown over in his hands for a moment, obviously deep in thought.

"Did you?" The general seemed to be holding himself back from something he wanted to say, trying to get all the information Zuko had first.

"I tried. The visions it produced were too confused, disorienting... it was hard to make any sense of them and almost painful to concentrate on them enough to try."

"Hallucinogenic coronations," Sokka put in helpfully. "You told me a little bit about it in the cell."

"Right," the firebender started to rise from the table, but winced and sat again. He created a flame in his hand and began twirling it idly between his fingers as a replacement for his obvious desire to pace while he spoke. "I thought it was a vision of my coronation, but everything was... doubled over, impossibly confused. But I was able to focus on it more, and I think I've worked it out."

"Wait, when did this happen, while you were out the last couple of days?" Sokka was pretty sure he would have noticed the prince meditating since they got back to the ship.

"No, while I was..." Zuko glanced between the other two and spoke in a decidedly neutral tone. "Before you came and got me on the second day. I didn't have the crown, but I needed to... focus on something internal, so I tried meditating on the visions I'd had before. Turned out the headache they gave me was still preferable to the real world at that very moment, so I was able to go deeper and understand them more." The prince's voice stayed mostly light, but the water tribesman couldn't help but notice a certain increase in air temperature coming from Iroh's side of the table. Still, the general was calm when he responded.

"And what were you able to determine?"

"I'm fairly sure that it was actually two different visions that I was having at the same time. Both were of me becoming Fire Lord, but they took place at different times and under very different circumstances."

Sokka nodded. "That makes sense with what you said before. You were wearing funeral robes and not at the same time, so one vision was of you becoming Fire Lord when your father died and the other was, I guess a different circumstance where he ceded the throne early?"

A slight flinch went across Zuko's face. "Not exactly... In both visions, after my coronation I went to the Capitol Prison - it's a tower near the palace where the most politically sensitive prisoners are held." This time he did manage to get to his feet and limped over to a side table to pour his uncle some more tea. "In one vision, the Avatar was being held there. He was much older and it felt like I'd visited him many times before." The water tribesman withheld any comment. He found it wasn't hard to imagine the prince visiting Aang in prison, not to gloat but out of a sense of responsibility. Perhaps making sure he was being treated humanely, or trying to give him a small amount of comfort. "But in the other vision... I went to the same cell, but it wasn't the Avatar there. It was holding my father."

Zuko had turned away from them both as he spoke, but Sokka could hear the shame in his voice. He looked to Iroh, expecting to see the same shock he was sure was written on his own face, or perhaps anger. Instead he saw a moment of undisguised hope before the old general cleared his throat and spoke soothingly to his nephew.

"It is often a mistake to be too sure of what a vision of destiny means. We cannot-"

"What else could it mean, Uncle? It's bad enough to have two different visions of my destiny that can't both be true, but to think that it could be my role to betray my father and usurp his throne? It shouldn't be possible! It's- I would never do that!" The prince sat down with his head in his hands and Sokka moved to gently put an arm around his shoulders. He felt his friend stiffen then lean into him. "I've always told myself that I wanted to go home so I could serve my father and my nation, not for the power that I'd have. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I** am **the kind of man who would seek power for it's own sake and sacrifice my honor to have it sooner..." The water tribesman weighed the updated chances of being set on fire if he pointed out how much that sounded like the kind of man Zuko's father was, but before he could decide whether or not to risk it, there was a knock on the door and a crewman looked in.

"Excuse me, sirs, but Admiral Zhao's ship has approached ours. They are signaling for us to dock so he can come aboard."


	13. Decisions and destinies

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warning : May make you want to punch Zhao in the face.**

"Zhao. Just what I needed." Zuko started unsteadily towards the door, but Iroh moved to block him.

"No, Prince Zuko, sit and finish your tea. I will deal with him if I can, and if he insists on seeing you, he can come to you here." Sokka noticed that the crewman - he thought his name was Jee but wasn't sure - had also brought in a masked helmet and took the hint, standing at the door to play Faceless Guard Number Seven in the evening's production.

He hoped Iroh would be able to put the obnoxious admiral off, since Zuko really didn't need any more stress in his life at the moment, but it seemed there were no spirits keeping an eye on Sokka-hopes that day. Soon enough Zhao swept by, with the general dithering after him. "Ah, here you are Prince Zuko. It's traditional, you know, for a ship's commander to greet a high ranking officer when they come on board... but I had heard that you were indisposed of late."

"You heard that, did you?" Zuko was making an obvious effort not to care.

"Oh yes, the news of your capture came through my command... of course General Iroh's information that you had been rescued came so close behind, I doubt any formal response was formulated at the Capitol before the point became moot. It's too bad, I was rather looking forward to seeing how your father would respond to the idea that he would actually give up something to get you back."

Sokka was torn between being glad the facemask hid his expression and annoyed that it would be out of character for Faceless Guard Number Seven to beat the admiral to death with his own leg. Zuko, meanwhile, had restrained himself from either shouting or trying to stand, but he gripped the table rather tightly as he spoke. "Why are you here, Zhao?"

"I actually came to deliver orders to your former crew."

"My what?" The prince seemed more honestly confused than angry for the moment.

"The upcoming invasion of the Northern Water Tribe will require every trained sailor and soldier not assigned to a crucial duty," Zhao said smugly. Sokka's mind raced. An invasion? Of that size? "Since helping a banished prince get in my way is by no means crucial, your entire crew will be reassigned to ships in my fleet. You will set course for the nearest Fire Nation port so that they can be transferred without leaving you adrift." He managed to make it sound like the height of accommodation.

"Surely you could leave my nephew a skeleton crew," Iroh suggested with a well faked cheerfulness. "The helmsman, a few sailors... the cook..." A faint whimper snuck in towards the end.

"Surely I could not." The admiral responded coldly. "This invasion is far too crucial to be jeopardized. Prince Zuko will not be left the resources to interfere with my plans any further."

"Why an invasion, Zhao?" Zuko's anger seemed to have left him for once, and he spoke with only puzzlement and concern. "The solstice has passed, but the nights will still be far longer than the days at the North Pole, leaving your troops at a disadvantage. Why gather up so many lives to throw away, when you could be spending your efforts intercepting the Avatar before he even gets there?"

The prince received a contemptuous sneer in response. "Three years of living in the real world and you're still too weak to accept tactical sacrifices. You didn't learn anything from that scar, did you?" Sokka maintained a steady internal mantra of_ do not beat Zhao to death, do not beat Zhao to death_. "But as it happens, the Avatar is not the only thing bringing me to the North Pole. I have a destiny there which will assure both the destruction of the Water Tribe and my place in history. But for now I have other things to attend to. You will make port by tomorrow at noon or your men will be charged as deserters."

The admiral paused in the doorway and smiled at Iroh. "My offer to you remains open, if you would like a second chance to be a part of history." At the general's stony look, he simply shrugged and left.

* * *

"An invasion!" Sokka paced back and forth, waving his arms wildly. "A full scale invasion! We expected trouble on the way there, even a blockade, but this... this is crazy! I've got to do something!" He flung himself in a chair and buried his head in his hands, trying to think the situation out. It was too late to catch up with Katara and Aang, and he couldn't walk to the North Pole. He didn't have the money to buy a boat, assuming he could find one small enough to sail on his own but sturdy enough to survive the trip...

Zuko probably had the money. Prince and all. But how could he ask for that? Zuko was already worried about the lives of his countrymen - some of them his own crew - being thrown away, he wasn't going to help prepare the Northern Tribe so they could kill even more Fire Nation troops.

And thinking about that, Sokka's perspective wrenched radically and suddenly he wasn't imagining faceless soldiers attacking Aang and Katara. Instead, he saw the crewman who had thought to bring him the mask, or the helmsman who had hovered with dread when Zuko was first brought aboard, and imagined them aboard a ship as it was destroyed by master waterbenders fully prepared for the attack. Curse it all, it wasn't like they had any choice, Sokka could easily remember how proud Jeong Jeong's lackey had been of "deserting from the Fire Nation army _and living_".

Cursed Zhao. Cursed war.

He was only peripherally aware of Zuko and Iroh holding a quiet discussion and the door closing behind heavy footsteps. It wasn't until a warm hand touched his shoulder that he shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up into golden eyes. "I'm sorry, Sokka."

"You **should** be sorry for standing up, your feet are never going to get better if you don't rest." He yanked the prince down into his lap and allowed himself to enjoy the surprised laugh, the feel of strong arms wrapping around his shoulders. "Moon and Ocean, Zuko, why can't life just be simple?"

A soft chuckle into his hair. "I ask myself that, All. The. Time."

Sokka smiled. "You would, I suppose." He was coming to the sad conclusion that Zuko was too bulky to fit comfortably on his lap. But he wanted to be the cuddler, not the one who got cuddled. If he was going to fall for a guy, couldn't it at least have been one who was shorter and skinnier than him? Speaking of life not being simple...

"Hmmmm... I'm probably crushing you."

"Heh, yeah, unfortunately." He hooked his ankle into the leg of the nearest chair and dragged it over so he could shift the other boy off his lap but cradle his head onto his shoulder instead. "You wanna tell me what Zhao was talking about with accepting tactical sacrifices?"

"Not really... but I probably should." The prince seemed perfectly content to lean on Sokka, accepting the gentle petting of his hair. "He was talking about my banishment. There was... I talked Uncle into taking me into a war meeting. I had been trying to learn more about what my father actually did, what it meant to be Fire Lord. They were discussing what to do about an entrenched battalion of powerful Earth Kingdom troops and benders..."

He turned so he was leaning back against Sokka's chest, close but unable to make eye contact. "One of the generals had a plan to lure them out so that they would be easier to deal with, but... He didn't want to use one of his more powerful units to do it, so he suggested using a training division instead."

The water tribesman blinked. "A training division?"

"All new recruits go into one of three divisions while they're being trained in combat and the basics of military life. They cycle out when they're ready to be placed in a combat position. The 41st was doing field training well within the Fire Nation controlled territory in the Earth Kingdom but close enough to move them to the battalion." He sighed and Sokka knit his fingers together over the prince's stomach and nuzzled the fuzzy stubble. He smiled, noting that Zuko hadn't shaved it. Maybe he hadn't felt like taking the time, but maybe he cared that Sokka liked it.

He went back to paying attention to the story. He didn't want to interrupt too much - his opinions would force the other boy to defend his nation on principle. "He knew they'd be slaughtered. Knew they couldn't be expected to survive against opposition like that, much less win, but he was willing to sacrifice them so that his more valuable units would have an easier time of it." Sokka could feel him tensing with remembered anger. "I was supposed to stay quiet, I wasn't invited to the meeting, had no place there. It was the way he talked about them, like they weren't soldiers he had a responsibility to... He said they'd make the best bait because they were_ fresh meat_."

"You spoke up." Didn't seem to be much point of making it a question.

He heard a small, strangled laugh in response. "Oh did I ever. I as all of thirteen, after all, officially invested as heir, so obviously I knew everything." Sokka didn't like the contempt in his tone, directed so clearly at his younger, more idealistic self. "I stood up in the middle of the War Room and started yelling at the general. Spouting some naive crap about how he was betraying his men and that they were serving out of nobility and patriotism and-"

"Zuko!" He moved back a little, turned the prince to face him again. He could see tears glistening in his good eye, anger in the set of his jaw. "That's not crap and it's not naive! It's- it's how a leader_ should _see the men under his command, and it's a pretty sad statement if you were the only one there who saw that! Trying to stop it was the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do would have done some good. All it did was make my father angry at my disrespect. I got banished and scarred for _nothing_, all those kids still marched to their deaths. And Zhao's right, I didn't learn a thing from it." He stood up and started moving towards the door.

"Maybe you're looking for the wrong lessons in it."

The prince sighed. "I'm tired, Sokka. Uncle wants to have one last Music Night before the crew leaves, you should go help him with it - you'd like that. Music is related to happiness, and all." He limped out.

* * *

Sokka did like helping with Music Night. Iroh had at some point acquired a traditional sealhide drum, and the tribesman happily played along with some of the songs. He decided that he liked Fire Nation music. The food wasn't bad either. Now if they could only get over that whole World Domination thing, it would be a pretty cool country.

The crew were talking about their 'reassignment', of course. Some were eager to see real action, some worried that they would be separated and have to get used to new comrades at a time when trust would be important. Most, Sokka was both surprised and pleased to realize, were at least a little concerned about Zuko and how he would continue his quest. He also couldn't help but notice that no one was curious_ if _the prince would continue, only how. Apparently they knew him pretty well, he thought with a private smile.

"You have quite a talent on the drums, young Sokka," Iroh said as he sat on a nearby crate. "It is too bad that my nephew did not invite you to any of our prior Music Nights."

The water tribesman laughed at the image of how such an invitation might have been delivered. "Yeah, I don't think that would have been practical. Our... friendship has been kinda awkward."

He wilted slightly under the old man's appraising look. "You consider it only a friendship? I don't mean to be blunt, but observing the two of you together..."

Sokka blushed. "Well, I- that is, it's not... the Water Tribe doesn't... Zuko is great and all, but he's..."

"Yes?" Iroh was giving a completely innocent questioning look that Sokka was almost certain was part of a plot to make him die from embarrassment.

"Well, he's the prince of the Fire Nation. So there's the prince part which means he's probably got an arranged marriage in his future. And there's the whole issue of being a prince versus, you know, a prin_cess_ that would probably get me shunned from my tribe if anyone found out, and then there's the fact that the place he's a prince **of** is, well," he glanced around to make sure none of the crew were paying attention to their conversation, "kind of my sworn enemy and such, so it just seems like there would be some barriers..."

The general sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I do not mean to embarrass you, Sokka. I know that the different peoples have different expectations and taboos. Zuko has been very dear to me his entire life and since I lost my own son... well, I very much want to see him happy, and I see the potential for happiness between the two of you."

"Zuko... told me a little bit about Lu Ten. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"As a father, I regret his death every day... As a man, I must admit that my greatest regret is that it took such a personal loss to open my eyes to what I was doing to the world by serving the Fire Nation as a general." He looked down at the deck. "I thought myself a good man before that; I thought I was leading my part of the war in the right way. It wasn't until after I lost Lu Ten and the spiritual journey I took later that I truly considered whether the war itself was right."

Most of the crew was heading to bed or back to their posts, and Sokka was grateful for the privacy. "Sir, if I can ask... why did you let Ozai take the throne? There must have been suspicions, if you had challenged him... you could have ended the war by now."

Iroh chuckled softly. "I suppose for the same reason I didn't speak out in the War Room when I knew as well as Zuko that the plan to sacrifice the 41st was wrong. I looked at the political realities of the situation, and saw the most likely outcome was more strife and the loss of what tempering influence I could bring to things, and chose to bend rather than break. It isn't the brave way, or always the right way, but I am an old man. Then as now, Prince Zuko was my hope for the future, and I chose to be there to shelter and guide him as best I could rather than risk all for what would be seen as a coup even if I triumphed."

Sokka nodded. "I guess it's harder for me to take the long view... I feel like if there's any chance, we have to go for it now before things get any worse."

"It's not a wrong way to think. The world needs brash young people who are willing to take the big risks for their youthful idealism. I flatter myself to think it also needs wise old men trying to ready the path for them."

The water tribesman smiled up at the stars. "I don't think it's too much flattery. I'd hate to think how much more of a mess Zuko would have been without you. Speaking of, I'm gonna go see how he's doing, he needed some space earlier, but I want to try to get him to think more about those two visions..."

Iroh nodded. "I'll have the cook send some supper to his quarters before he retires for the night. Oh I shall miss that cook..."

* * *

The door was slightly ajar, so Sokka slipped into the dimly lit room without knocking. When he saw the prince sitting before a small table with several candles lit, he settled onto the bed to observe. Zuko was holding Roku's crown loosely in his hands as he meditated, the tiny flames rising and falling with his breath. The water tribesman watched the flames, letting himself be hypnotized by their steady movement.

What did he want to do? Should he be helping the Fire Prince? If he turned against his father, Sokka felt sure he would aid the world as Fire Lord. Stop the war or at least halt the Fire Nation's advances. But if he continued to seek some sort of twisted redemption for the crime of not being a monster, he might succeed in capturing Aang and doom the world instead. And if his visions were to be believed, both courses of action were within his destiny.

Not that it was entirely about destiny. As he had admitted earlier, he_ wanted _to stay with Zuko, regardless of the prince's goals. But that just brought up another slew of questions. What did he want to stay with him **as**? A friend? It was more than that. A boyfriend? How would that even work? And what if Zuko wanted to be the boyfriend, would that make Sokka the girlfriend? Sokka didn't want to be the girl!

His thoughts were mercifully cut short by a light knock on the door. Since Zuko didn't immediately stir, he went and opened it, smiling thankfully at the cook as he took the tray of food. "It smells great!" The cook smiled back and headed to bed.

The prince finally came out of his trance as Sokka was dividing the food into two bowls. "That smells good."

"Yeah, come eat something, have you been meditating this whole time?"

"Pretty much." He limped over and sat across from the tribesman. "Did you enjoy music night?"

"I did!" Sokka said with a grin. "I even helped with the music. You should have joined us."

"Why break a perfect record of avoidance now?" Zuko smirked a little.

"You're such a grump."

"Maybe..." The prince paused to eat for a while, looking contemplative.

"Did... did you figure anything more out about the visions from the crown?"

"More details. Now that I understand what's happening, I'm able to focus my attention more on one vision or the other, though there's still an overlap that makes it difficult to see or hear everything. I- I don't like what I'm figuring out."

Sokka forced himself to eat quietly, not wanting to reveal his own hopes and fears until he'd heard more. Well, not completely quietly, there were some involuntary sounds of pleasure. Iroh was right to grieve losing this cook.

"In the vision of my father's funeral, I'm older. A lot older, it's been 20 or 30 years probably... When I go to the prison afterwards, I think it's to tell the Avatar what's happened, and to- to ask him what he thinks I should do. Because the Fire Lord can do anything he wants, and I finally have the power to decide." He took a few minutes to force some food down, clearly not enjoying his meal as much as the water tribesman was.

"I see him ask me something, and I don't have an answer. And I've been trying to figure out what he asks... I think he's asking me if I can bring the other nations back."

With great strength of composure, Sokka managed to swallow the food in his mouth before he hung his jaw open like a fish. "The other nations... not just the Air Nomads, but..."

"Yeah. I think my father, and Azula of course, manage to one-up Sozin in that vision. I think... I think the whole world is Fire Nation, the other peoples are... gone." He set down his chopsticks, unable to maintain even a pretense of eating. "I always told myself that when I became Fire Lord, I would end the war, stop any more soldiers like Lu Ten or those recruits from dying for... for the ego of the Fire Nation. But if this is true, by the time I'll become Fire Lord, the war will already be over. Not in a truce, or even subjugation, but because there is literally no one left to fight."

Sokka moved over and put his arm around the prince, unable to think of anything to say for once, and suspecting that maybe that was for the best this time. He waited, gently holding his friend.

"I told you about how I visited all the Air Temples once... There's a lot left of them - the murals, the statues, fields where they played their games, halls where they meditated." He leaned his head against the tribesman's shoulder and trembled slightly. "I know what the world lost when Sozin destroyed them. I was taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest culture in the world, and, well, maybe we are. There's a lot to us when we aren't busy destroying others... But it didn't add anything to the world to take away the culture that the Air Nomads had. It didn't make us any greater and it made the world... poorer for it. Even the people of the Fire Nation are poorer for it."

"And the other vision?" Sokka knew he was taking a risk, but Zuko needed to follow this through to it's conclusion.

"I'm young still. I think I'm worried my hair hasn't grown out enough to stay in a topknot, it couldn't be more than a year from now. And... the Avatar is in that vision too. Not in the prison, at my coronation. I- I call him out to talk to the crowd. And the crowd... It isn't all soldiers in red. There are patches of green, and some men near the front in blue armor with... wolf heads for some reason," Sokka started but managed to keep quiet. "I think the Kyoshi warriors might even be there, which is beyond strange."

"The war's over."

"The war's over. And I've succeeded in some sort of- a coup against my father. I've betrayed him."

The two sat together in silence for a while. Sokka wanted to tell Zuko that betraying his father, who by the way was a bastard without a soul and should be kicked in the balls once for the war and twice for everything he put his son through, was a lot better than standing by and letting the world be destroyed. But he remembered his own reaction when the prince had suggested that Aang would have to kill two Fire Lords for a hope at peace, the horror on the monk's face when he had tried to broach the subject in a roundabout way later. Zuko had his principles just like Aang. They were part of what Sokka liked about him. This might take some time.

"Why don't you let me change your bandages before you pass out? Especially your feet, you've been on them way too much." The prince smiled gratefully at the unspoken offer to let the discussion lie for now, and moved onto the bed, slipping off his robe as he went. They were quiet while Sokka checked his stitches, put salve on the worst of the injuries and rewrapped his ribs, but it was a comfortable silence that even the talkative tribesman didn't feel the need to break until he was finished. "You know... it's sort of impractical for you to get to the North Pole now."

"You don't say?" It was a tired and almost playful sarcasm with no real bite, and Sokka smiled as he found the prince a pillow and helped him get comfortable on his stomach.

"So I was thinking - and don't say it - I was thinking that maybe we could take some time to see the Earth Kingdom while Aang is there."

"See the Earth Kingdom?" Zuko sounded doubtful. "I'm not the tourist type, that seems more like something Uncle would do with you."

"Yeah, well, first of all, I'd rather take you, even if you were grumpy about it, and second I'm not talking about being a tourist... You said that you'd seen what the world lost when the Air Nomads were destroyed. Maybe before you decide which destiny you want to pursue, you should see what it will lose if the same thing happens to the Earth Kingdom." Sokka paused, he knew he was taking a gamble, but like Iroh said, sometimes the world needed people who would do that. "I know where Aang and Katara are headed after the North Pole - if you want, we can part ways there and you won't be any farther from catching him than you are now."

Zuko turned slightly on his side and looked up at him. "There's a risk to leaving things at the North Pole to play out... for both of us."

"Yeah, I know... I was- it sounded like Zhao had made your uncle an offer to go with him... Do you think he would, I don't know, keep an eye on things? Make sure nothing world shattering happens?"

Zuko considered it. "I'll talk to him about it in the morning. About the whole idea. He's going to be unbearably smug about it, but I think I do need his advice on this."

Sokka snickered slightly. "On the bright side if he thinks it's a good idea, you won't have to put up with the smugness for a month or more."

"There is that..." The prince was beginning to sound sleepy, and Sokka suddenly realized that someone had removed his nest of blankets, and it was a little late to ask Iroh where he could bunk.

"So, um, I guess I should-"

"Stay." Zuko reached over and firmly pulled Sokka down so he could lie partially on the tribesman's shoulder and chest, taking the weight off of his cracked ribs. "You should stay. Please. For tonight."

Sokka looked into golden eyes, seeing the hope there. This was another thing to figure out, but maybe they could take one life changing dilemma at a time. He slipped an arm around the prince's shoulders, and held the hand lying across him. They both craned their necks awkwardly for a brief kiss. Okay. For tonight.


	14. Whither thou goest

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

**Warning : May induce sugar coma from sweetness.**

The only thing nicer than waking up with Zuko snuggling on his chest was that this time he was waking up in a warm, comfy bed with Zuko snuggling on his chest, rather than the floor of a prison cell. And Zuko wasn't chained up, so his hand was gently running over Sokka's side, tracing the line of a long scar.

"Hey, that tickles a little," he mumbled into the prince's hair.

"Sorry. How did you get it?"

"Polar leopard. It was stalking too close to the village last spring, and it wasn't safe to let the kids go out unless I got rid of it." He grinned in pride at the memory. "I got it with a solid hit from my spear, but it still charged me before it noticed it was dead. Katara got so mad at me that I dragged it back to the village with a wound instead of just getting home faster to be stitched up."

He felt the chuckle in his chest. "Like you would have left the proof behind and had her doubting you for the whole summer."

"Pretty much. And I got a great pelt out of it." He craned his head up to check the wounds on Zuko's back, feeling them for swelling or heat. "I think we've actually managed to avoid any of these getting infected. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine..." The prince sounded grumpy, but when he sat up to regard Sokka, his expression was almost concerned. "Though I'm not sure you'll see that as a good thing."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? I lo- I like you a lot, of course I want you to feel better!" He glared at the other teen with some annoyance.

"Sorry, I know you do, I just... nevermind." He reached for a pair of slippers to protect his still tender feet before climbing out of bed.

"Hrm, no, I think we've had the nevermind conversation before. What's wrong?"

Zuko stayed facing away. "It's just that, well, you're a protector. It's the way you think, the way you fight and it's the way you care about people. You want to stay with me now when I need taken care of, but, I guess... I'm just worried you'll feel differently once I'm all the way back on my feet and can kick your ass again."

First Sokka gaped. Then he grinned. Then he found himself laughing. When Zuko turned towards him with a scowl, he pulled the prince back down onto the bed and gave him a firm kiss. "First of all, I'm pretty sure if you really wanted to, you could kick my ass right now and just deal with the damage you'd do to yourself later. You're like some crazy unstoppable vengeance spirit from a campfire story." He ignored the disgruntled snort this provoked. "And I like that about you. You're an incredible warrior and the chance to train with you and fight beside you is definitely a bonus to the idea of traveling with you."

"Well, you could use the training..." He smirked at the insult in the water tribesman's face and rubbed a hand down his back. "You've got great instincts, and good reflexes, but it's obvious that you're almost completely self taught. You just need some formal instruction to focus the raw talent."

"There you go, having a kickass Zuko back will be my first step to becoming more kickass myself. Anyway, second of all, if you think I'm gonna stop taking care of you and trying to protect you from yourself once you feel better, think again. No way your uncle will agree to keep an eye on Zhao for us unless someone's ready to take over making sure you eat and sleep once in a while." He overrode the annoyed response with, "so unless you're planning on going Macho Dork on me and not letting me cuddle you once you're back to top form, you've got nothing to worry about there, okay?"

Zuko looked at him for a long moment. "Sometimes I get rude and snap at Uncle when he's trying to take care of me."

"Yeah, well, sometimes I get annoyed at the person I'm taking care of and yell at them for whatever got them into that state to begin with."

The prince leaned back into him and Sokka caught a tiny smile. "We're going to kill each other, aren't we?"

"Either that or turn into an old married couple."

Now the smile was broader. "I thought that wasn't allowed in the Water Tribe?"

The tribesman blushed a little. "Well... let's see if we survive the first couple of weeks together and then worry about the details."

"That sounds like a good plan. Speaking of details, I do need to go speak to my uncle before we dock and he gets caught up in goodbyes to the crew." Zuko turned in Sokka's arms and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "If you could do me a favor, start packing up some traveling clothes, not my uniforms, and not more than two bags full."

"Aye aye captain!" He grinned into the glare and started ransacking the prince's room.

* * *

Sokka couldn't even fill two bags with the clothes Zuko had that weren't uniforms. If he had left out the clothes that were either red or black, the bags would have been empty. As he felt the ship docking, he was trying to imagine his friend in the browns and greens he had seen on his travels.

"We're going to have to get you some Earth Kingdom looking clothes, you know," was his first comment when the prince reentered the room. "I mean, there wouldn't be much point to only seeing those areas under Fire Nation control."

"I have a feeling that's being taken care of. I barely got half of the plan out to Uncle before he was hugging me and talking about provisions and information I would need and how to contact him." He glanced sidelong at the water tribesman as he started sorting his belongings into three piles. "I did manage to tell him that it wasn't a honeymoon twice, but it doesn't seem to be taking."

Sokka felt heat spread over his face. "Right," he managed to choke out. "So, **not** a taboo in the Fire Nation, huh?"

"No." He could see concern on Zuko's face, even when he tried to hide it with a smirk. "But it's not exactly required, either. I don't want to scare you off, I mean, you're... well, I..."

"Can stand being around me?" He felt the blush fade under a grin at the prince's fumbling. Had the poor guy_ ever _had a friend before?

Now it was the firebender's turn to blush, though not as much. "Even worse, I actually prefer it to not being around you. So I don't want you to feel like there's some sort of..." He turned a scroll case over in his hands a few times nervously before setting it on one pile. "Some all or nothing obligation to us being together. Like you said earlier, we can worry about the details as we go along."

Sokka laughed a little. "Okay, I can handle that. So what's with the piles?"

"Taking, storing, don't care." Zuko pointed to each in turn with a small smile. "Uncle is going to pay for some space in a warehouse here for his crazy collections, so there's some things I may want eventually but don't need to take along. I get the feeling he's also buying us some mounts, since he said I shouldn't worry about having too much to carry."

"Not those rhinos right? We would stick out like a pair of sore thumbs. Also, I don't think they like the color blue."

"I'm pretty sure they're color blind, they probably just don't like you." The prince smirked. "But Uncle is more sensible than that... usually. When tea or lotus tiles aren't involved."

"Heh, you'll have to explain that eventually. Are you going to say goodbye to the crew?"

Zuko paused in boxing up his 'storing' pile. "I suppose I should. At least Lieutenant Jee and some of the other officers. They've done well and put up with quite a bit over the last couple of years." He looked hesitant, but nodded again. "Let's take these up on deck and we'll see if they've left yet."

Much of the crew had already departed, but Jee and a couple of others remained. Sokka wished a sailor who he had talked briefly with at Music Night a safe journey and watched while Zuko and Jee exchanged awkward goodbyes and somewhat less awkward salutes. He also watched with some surprise as the helmsman bowed so low he was almost kneeling.

"Good luck, Your Highness. I... I hope eventually to be serving in _your_ navy." The man departed quickly while Zuko looked slightly stunned. He was shaken out of it by a call from the docks.

"Nephew, come down, I have a present for you and your friend!"

Coming down the gangplank, Sokka was stunned at the sight of the huge, lean creature sitting docilely behind Iroh.

"Your uncle got us an eelhound?"

* * *

One week later, Sokka was steadily retreating from a flurry of sharp steel, blocking and occasionally even attacking with the whalebone scimitar that Iroh had gifted him along with the sealhide drums and wondering where Zuko got all of his energy from. He'd really thought that suggesting a spar after the prince had finished what looked like a grueling practice session of firebending forms would give him a fighting chance, but apparently the earlier exercise had just been a nice warmup.

"Take smaller steps, you're reducing your stability and telegraphing your movements. And don't watch the tips of my blades, that just tells you where they are, get in the habit of watching my hands and arms, that tells you where I'm going. Don't give so much ground, you're backing out of the area you've seen, and you're going to-" the tribesman felt a stone roll under his foot and fell backwards as the attacks stopped. "Yeah, do that."

Sokka tried for a scowl, but the sight of those golden eyes dancing in a amusement and Zuko looking so relaxed undid him as usual. "Hmph. I wonder if Katara and Aang's training is involving this many bruises."

The prince laughed. "Well, my firebending training did, but that's mostly because I fell down all the time. I don't know how waterbenders train."

"You fell down a lot? Here I imagined you as Mr Born to Firebend, natural warrior and all that." He went back to the campfire to check their dinner, stretching as he walked.

"Not at all. Azula was the prodigy. Everything came easily to her. When we trained together, she was the one who never fell down."

"Really? Which one were you?"

Zuko smirked slightly. "I was the one who never stopped getting back up." Sokka looked at him, imagining so clearly a young Zuko trying one of the forms he had been so effortlessly practicing earlier, losing his footing and falling, standing again to fall again, not stopping until he made it work.

"Yeah," he said. He wanted to give his imaginary little Zuko a hug. "I bet you didn't."

Zuko settled next to him, inspecting his swords for any damage from the match before sheathing them. "You've improved a lot. We should pick up a couple of other kinds of swords when we get a chance, make sure you can adapt if you need to improvise, and see if you might like another better."

"Aw, Iroh would be so hurt if I stopped using his present! And it had sentimental value even before that. I still think we should have traveled as the Water Vandals," he jokingly referenced their wanted poster - now one of his most prized possessions.

"I don't exactly pass without the makeup. And there's not much point avoiding trouble from Earth Kingdom forces only to be arrested by the Fire Nation."

"Well, at least if we were arrested by them, you could probably talk our way out... You want to keep an eye on this while I set up the tent?"

The prince nodded and reached into the coals to turn the bundles they had steaming. It had taken Sokka a while to stop wanting to leap forward and save him when he did that sort of thing - the scar on his face and damage to his feet proved he _could_ be burned, after all - and just admire the precision it took to control the heat enough to touch without putting out the coals or stopping the food from cooking. The tribesman turned his attention to the tent and the nightly indecision of arranging their bedding. Zuko was extremely warm and comfy and nice to hold and could stop him from snoring with a light jostle rather than throwing things across the tent when they slept together, but... a guy.

He went back to the fire as Zuko was opening up the steamed bundles onto plates and took one automatically. He saw the firebender watching him.

"Hey Zuko?"

"Hmm?"

"We haven't killed each other so far."

There was that smile. He had seen it more and more often this past week and every time it made him feel like he had some sort of special power. He was a Zuko-smile-bender. "I don't think we're going to."

"So... about the details..."

The smile faded slightly at his hesitant tone, but the prince shifted to lean against him a little. "What about them?"

"You said once before that you expected to be in an arranged marriage eventually, and if your destiny is to be the Fire Lord, I suppose heirs are a must... does that mean any, er," he blushed slightly, "relationship between the two of us is explicitly temporary?"

"Well, it means that at some point, it would probably become non-exclusive. As Fire Lord, I'd have a good deal of control over arranging my own marriage, and while strong, capable noblewomen who can be friends and spouses while only sharing a bed a couple of times a month don't exactly grow on trees, they can be found. There have even been a few Fire Lords in the histories who took on permanent consorts who were either incapable or not appropriate to bear heirs and designated a nephew or much younger sibling as heir."

"You are _so _not passing the throne to a child of Azula's!" Sokka wasn't thrilled with the other option, but thought he could get used to the idea if everyone was going in with their eyes open.

"I'm the child of my father and somehow Uncle has decided I can be trusted... But the point is, no, it... it doesn't have to be temporary." He broke eye contact to dig into his food and Sokka took the time to think.

"Okay, so about um... the other details..." Sokka felt his face getting hot, and wondered if there was some rule that you shouldn't be doing anything that you couldn't talk about without blushing. "How- that is, who- you're a prince so would you expect to be... um..."

Zuko was either really understanding or had a great deal of self control, because he didn't start laughing at the water tribesman. Instead, he put aside his empty plate and leaned over to stop the imminent babble with a gentle kiss. "There's no rules, Sokka. No hard and fast roles we have to agree to tonight. We try different things. If we both like something, we try it again. If one of us hates it, we don't." He gave a smirk while settling onto his back and pulling the other boy down over him. "If one of us doesn't particularly like something the other one absolutely loves, we add a new dimension to arguing over camp chores."

Sokka laughed and straddled the prince while running a hand softly over his cheek. "I do like to try new things... Let me see what I can do that will have you on dish duty for a while." He leaned over and blocked Zuko's laughter with a long kiss.

* * *

A different night, relaxing in front of a different fire. Zuko lay back with his head on Sokka's knee, toying with a few coins. He had been trying to see if he could get them hot enough to shape and do so with his fingers while not getting burned. Sokka watched for a while. "You've been working pretty hard on the subtle stuff, huh?"

"Uncle wants me to focus less on raw power and more on fine control while we're apart. I think he's concerned that if I do decide to follow the destiny of opposing my father that I'll have to go up against Azula eventually... I'll never match her in power, so I have to work harder on the aspects of firebending I have a chance in."

"Hmmm..." He gently nudged the prince upright so he could spread out a map of the area and plot out routes. "We'll make it to Goaling by tomorrow night and we can find that Earth Rumble thing we heard about. Should be fun to see. Not sure where to after that."

"Whither thou goest, Sokka..."

"Huh?" The tribesman turned and saw Zuko facing him with a somewhat faraway look, the coins still for the moment.

"It's from Love Amongst the Dragons. My mom used to take me to see it every summer on Ember Island. The theater group ruined it, but it was a good play..." He took the map from in front of the other boy and rolled it up as he continued. "There's a part where the Fire Princess's Earth Kingdom husband dies and she tell his personal guard to return to their homeland because they have no reason to serve her now. Most of them go, but one insists on remaining in the Fire Nation to protect her."

Zuko had turned Sokka towards him and was gently holding his hands. "And he says, _Ask me not to leave thee, nor turn me back from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go. Whither thou lodgest, I will lodge._" The water tribesman had a tight feeling in his chest that he remembered from the day he rescued Zuko, and he had a hard time breathing when the prince took one of his hands and placed it over the scar that covered his eye. "_Thy nation will be my nation, thy spirits my spirits. Whither thou diest, I will die and there my ashes rest._" Zuko looked scared, he thought. Scared like he hadn't been of a plant monster, or a crazy mission against Zhao's troops, or being in the hands of his enemies. "_And let death and worse come to me, should any in life part me and thee._"

Sokka had to breathe. Couldn't talk without breathing. "Yeah?"

Zuko was looking into his eyes, scared but not backing down. As if he ever could. "Yeah."

"I do."

* * *

**A/N : There will be an epilogue. I just had to end this chapter here. I'm all verklempt.**

**A/N2 : The lines attributed to Love Amongst the Dragons are adapted from the Book of Ruth, contained in some Christian bibles as part of the Apocrypha. In spite of (or perhaps in some weird way because of) the fact that they are spoken by a widow to her mother-in-law, I consider them easily the most romantic speech made in the entire Bible. Like, the-title-of-this-chapter-is-engraved-in-my-wedding-band romantic. So, yeah. Had to use it.**


	15. Epilogue

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

Aang was sitting on Appa's neck, holding the reins, but you couldn't say he was steering, exactly. If you wanted to be very precise about it, you could say that he wouldn't have tugged the reins if a dragon appeared right in front of them and held up a sign saying "STOP". Mostly he was just staring into nothing and thinking 'I kissed Katara. I kissed _Katara_. I **kissed** Katara. _**I**_ kissed Katara.' Sure it had been because they thought it would save their lives and there had been singing nomads watching and encouraging them, but still. He had kissed Katara. This was worth thinking about.

So, perhaps he could be forgiven for not noticing the two yelling, waving teens standing on a tall rock until Appa recognized them and started circling down.

"Aang, why are we landing, I thought we were gonna fly straight to Oma- Sokka!" Aang became aware of the outside world again when Katara hurled herself from the saddle almost before they were on the ground and slammed into her brother hard enough to knock him down. "Oh, Moon and Ocean I've missed you so much! Things were crazy at the North Pole, they're even more of sexist pigs than you are and Aang had to teach me waterbending in secret, and there was an invasion, and Zhao tried to kill the Moon but that old guy who travels with Zuko kicked his ass and what the black snow is Zuko doing here?"

Sokka coughed slightly, managed to make his way to his feet, and gently hugged his sister. "I missed you too. Zuko's going to travel with us and teach Aang firebending when he's ready, if Aang's okay with that. Is Iroh alright, Zhao didn't hurt him, did he?"

The airbender looked at the prince, who had abandoned his usual Fire Nation armor for a set of green and gold Earth Kingdom robes. Zuko looked a little nervous, but he was looking nervously at Katara, not him. In fact he looked a little relieved when Sokka brought up the training idea and focused attention on Aang. "Well..." The young monk wasn't sure about this. "I, um, I guess we have some time to decide if I'm okay with that or not, since we have to find Bumi and have him teach me earthbending first. And General Iroh is fine, it turns out he's an old friend of my waterbending instructor, and after he helped save the moon, Chief Arnook let him stay at the North Pole while he decided what to do now."

"Okay, sometime later you can explain exactly how someone saves the moon, or kills it for that matter..." Sokka smiled a little at the idea, but he now seemed hesitant. "For now... um, I've got some bad news and some good news about King Bumi. Um, and then some more bad news. But then some more good news. But-"

"Omashu has fallen to the Fire Nation." Zuko interrupted with a roll of his eyes. "That crazy king of theirs surrendered when they laid down bridges. We were able to get the remains of the army and a fair number of civilians out so they could join in the defense of other cities, but when we found King Bumi, he wouldn't leave. Rambled on about neutral jin, Momo's importance to the war effort and a lot about listening and waiting. He also called me Kuzon twice." The firebender scowled.

"Well, you do look a little like him now that your hair is growing out..." Aang absently noticed that Sokka had changed his hair too. The sides weren't shaved, and it was in something closer to a topknot than his usual wolftail. "Did you explain that he's supposed to be my earthbending teacher?"

"We tried, Aang," the water tribesman said with a comforting hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "He's convinced that he has some other role to play and that you'll have to find another teacher. The good news is I already have a great idea of where to start looking. Zuko and I went to a really cool earthbending tournament and there was this awesome competitor called The Boulder! He'd be great!"

Zuko looked skyward with a sigh and spoke with an air of long suffering. "The Avatar does **not** need to learn earthbending from a man who hasn't mastered first person speech, Sokka... That girl at the end though was something interesting. Her style was-"

"What is that on your neck?" Katara, who had seemed happy to just be with her brother again, suddenly moved towards the prince and kept his chin up with one hand while the other pulled out a necklace that the change of posture had tugged up over his collar. It was pretty, Aang thought. A smooth white stone with a flame emblem and a boomerang shape roughly carved into it, hanging from a simple leather thong. The waterbender looked at it in shock and stepped back, her eyes flitting between Zuko and Sokka. "What is this?" she seemed to be asking both.

Zuko looked to the water tribesman, clearly letting him decide how to handle this. Sokka took a deep breath and stepped closer to the prince, lightly entangling their fingers, and met his sister's eyes. "It's the necklace I carved for Zuko. He made me this pony tail holder." He gestured towards his new hairstyle and Aang noticed the silver and gold band that adorned it. So Sokka and Zuko were making each other jewelry? And hadn't that healer at the North Pole said Katara's necklace had originally been...

"Oh!" The sound of realization and delight burst out of the young monk. "Zuko is joining our side because you and him are together! That's great!" Sokka smiled and Katara was still shocked.

Zuko, on the other hand, looked insulted. "What? No!"

The waterbender's eyes narrowed. "_What? No, _you aren't really joining our side, or _What? No, _you're not with my brother?"

Golden eyes narrowed right back. "_What? No_, the two don't have anything to do with each other! My duty to the Fire Nation comes before any personal attachments I have. I'm willing to help the Avatar because I've come to understand that it's the only way I can end this war before it damages the world too badly to be repaired. My relationship with Sokka is a completely separate situation."

Aang considered this. "So your duty to the Fire Nation is to help defeat the Fire Lord?" Zuko flinched a little at the blunt phrasing but nodded.

"There is precedent of a sort, and even for the involvement of the Avatar. It would be best if Ozai was formally given the chance to end the war, but if he persists in a course that is destructive to our people, it is not treason to seek to remove him from power." The prince clearly wasn't happy about the idea, but did they really want to work with someone who was thrilled to fight his family?

"Ahem," Katara broke in. "That's all well and good, but can we get back to the part where you have a 'relationship' with my** brother**?"

Sokka stepped forward and took his sister's hand. "I know this isn't what we were raised to 'Tara, but... It is what it is. I love you, I hope you can still love me."

She gave Zuko one last vaguely distrustful look then shook her head. "Well, since I spent a few weeks trying to single handedly smash the Northern Tribe's cultural values, it would be pretty silly for me to say you can't be happy because the elders say so. And of course I love you."

"Great!" The water tribesman grinned. "So let's get moving to find Aang an earthbending teacher! I'm telling you, I have a good feeling about this Boulder guy." The prince sighed again but the look he gave Sokka was of undisguised affection. Aang met his eyes a little shyly.

"I didn't mean to insult you. The idea seemed sort of romantic."

Zuko smirked slightly. "I suppose it is. They'll probably write songs with it happening that way if we win. A forbidden love that changed the course of the war." The monk laughed at the dramatic phrasing then looked at him sidelong.

"You shouldn't mock romance. Katara and I let love lead the way and it got us through the tunnels here."

"Really? Sokka and I passed through last week and we let huge ferocious beasts lead our way..."

"Heh, this is gonna be fun..."

**A/N : Thank you all for reading! **

**A/N2 : Suteshi created art based on the last chapter at suteshi[dot]deviantart[dot]com[slash]art[slash]Whither-thou-goest-198944827 It is super swell and I am honored!**


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